Assassination Classroom and The Prisoner of Azkaban
by EvilLydia
Summary: With the prisoner of Azkaban escaped, the Ministry of Magic had to do something to protect the students. Not wanting to impede of the students education they hired children. After killing an unkillable monster, one man should be a piece of cake, right? AU where Kunugigaoka is a magic school and all the assassination classroom students are wizards or witches.
1. A New Proposal or Owl Post

Assassination Classroom and the Chamber of Secrets

I don't own anything, NOTHING I TELL YOU! Assassination Classroom (or Ansatsu Kyashitsu if you prefer) is owned by Yusei Matsui and Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling.  
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Chapter 1 - A New Proposal or Owl Post

The opening of the Kungigaoka School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Japan was an exciting event for the magic community. Asuno, a very ambitious and intelligent man with a dream for how a school would be run, was allowed experiment with how things were run. Part of his educational program was to isolate some of the students as an example. The class was call class 'E as in the End'.

Years later, after an unstoppable creature destroyed most of the moon, it decided to teach the class that was isolated on the mountain. It claimed that it was going to destroy the world unless the class could kill him before March. Much to the worlds surprise, they did it.  
_

Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways. For one thing, he hated the summer holidays more than any other time of year. For another, he really wanted to do his homework but was forced to do it in secret, in the dead of night. And he also happened to be a wizard.

As soon as he got back from Hogwarts Uncle Vernon had locked away all of his school things in the cupboard under the stairs. One day, when every one was outside he managed to pick the lock and get some of the things out.

He was doing his homework in the dark, under a blanket with a flashlight so that his aunt and uncle wouldn't find out. For Minors magic outside of school was strictly forbidden.

After deciding to finish for the night he put his school things in a pillow case then under some loose floor boards under his bed. He then, passed Hedwig's, his snowy white owl, empty cage to the window.

Hedwig had been gone for two nights but he wasn't worried. She had been gone for this long before. Suddenly he saw something coming in the distance coming right at him. His first instinct was to slam the window but he resisted.

It tuned out to be three owls, two of them were supporting the one in the middle. The owls landed on this bed. He recognized two of the owls, Hedwig and the one passed out was Errol. The third was from Hogwarts.

He picked up Errol and put him in Hedwig's cage. He gave him some water, which the bird was greatful for.

He was overjoyed to receive, not only cards but also presents. Ron was writing from Egypt, his father had won a money from a drawing and taken the entire family there, where Bill, Ron's brother worked. He had given him a magic top that was suppose to light up and spin when there's someone untrustworthy around. Although in his letter he said that Bill thought that it was just a ploy to trick tourists.

Hermione was vacationing in France. He wasn't surprised that the present was shaped like a book. He opened it to find a _Handbook of Do-It-Yourself Broomcare._ It was the best present he could ask for.

Hagrid also wrote him a letter and sent him a present; he said that the present would be useful for the upcoming year. Before he could open it, it quivered. He picked up a lamp to hit it if he needed to. Out dropped a green book with the golden words _Monster Book of Monsters_. The book started snapping at him like it was going to bite him. He did eventually manage to subdue it and put it with the rest of his homework under the floor boards.

He knew that Hagrid would never give him anything that would hurt him on purpose but he didn't have what normal people would call common sense when it came to dangerous animals.

The final letter was from the school. It told him that third years were allowed to visit the Hogsmeade village as long as they had their permission form signed by a parent of guardian.

The he took off his glasses and lay down, eyes open, facing his three birthday cards. Extremely unusual though he was, at that moment Harry Potter felt just like everyone else - glad, for the first time in his life, that it was his birthday.  
_

Just before the assassination of Korosensei, Karasuma had to sit through a meeting listening to the ridiculous offer made by the portly, English Minister of Magic wearing a pinstripe cloak and a green bowler hat.

He talked about 'the boy who lived' that needed protection. He wanted to have at least some of the students of the 'Assassination Classroom' come to England. He pressed that the criminal Sirius Black had escaped Azkaban. He claimed that this man kill thirteen people in just one curse and he was very loyal to 'you-know-who'. The reason he stated was that since they were all trained they could protect Potter and therefore protecting for future of the wizarding world by blending in with other children.

Although he didn't have very much time in the classroom lately, he knew that Korosensei had been working very hard with all the students for of the future career. Going to a new school might mess up some of their plans. Going there might also put them in danger, judging by the rumors of Potter over the last two years.

His bosses were very into that idea, wanting to get be able to get involved without officially being involved. After all, these children were a government secret. Since they couldn't force anyone to do anything, he was ordered to give this offer to the students, but not until the end of the year. Each one that participated was to given a reward.

The night that Korosensei was assassinated was very emotional for everyone involved. He waited for a few days after graduation for everyone to calm down before he emailed everyone in Class E to call them for a meeting at the old school house at 6 in the evening.

Karma was walking up the mountain thinking about the mysterious email that Karasuma Sensei had sent earlier. It was obvious he was hiding something but there was no way of telling exactly what it was. He didn't really want to get involved in the government again but there was no reason not to listen to the offer. The graduation ceremony was also somewhat surprising. Asuno and his gang even ended up helping them in the end.

He saw Nagisa walking just ahead of him with his head down. It was surprising to see that his hair was short. Somehow he looked even younger than he normally did.

Karma could tell that part of him was obviously still grieving from the loss of Korosensei but there was something else that he didn't recognize. Karma thought he might by worrying about the email.

He picked up the pace and grabbed Nagisa's shoulder. "Hey Karma," he said. Even though he said that cheerfully he seemed more tired than normal. Karma smiled at him and said, "Hey, you actually look like a guy for a change. What happened?"

Nagisa looked away, a little embarrassed. He touched the back of his head gently and said, "Um, I told my mother that I was going to cut my hair after I graduated. I had wanted to for a long time but to be honest it feels a little weird." Karma couldn't help but laugh a little.

On top of the mountain they could see the sunset. This was a magical place; both wonderful and painful. Many of the students stood still watching the sun set and thinking about everything that took place over the past year.

After telling them everything Karasuma stood in front of the blackboard, looking at his shocked class. He had told them what was asked of them. He made no secret of how he felt about it. The entire class was whispering among themselves.

Suddenly Karma spoke up, "I'll do it. I was planning on dominating Kungigaoka but Hogwarts has a pretty good reputation too. One year with good grades there would be good for my future and it might be fun. Plus we get to travel."

Karasuma was glad for Karma. He was headstrong and said what he thought. He was also a good leader. The idea of him dealing with normal students was a little concerning but it was going to happen one way or another.

Nakamura stood up and said, "Yeah, I wanted to be a diplomat and going to England now would probably help." After that there was several voices agreeing with them.

Karasuma decided that this would be the best time to step in. "I would like all of you to think about this for a while. Unfortunately we don't have very much time. I would like you to come back tomorrow at the same time with your answer. When this is done the list of students will be sent to the Minister of Magic and the headmaster of the school."  
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I basing this on the books so it will take a couple of chapters to get to the actual school and I'll try to space out the story until I get there without filler.


	2. Making Plans or Aunt Marge's Big Mistak

I still don't own anything...still...(sigh).

Chapter 2 - Making Plans or Aunt Marge's Big Mistake, whatever you prefer

The next morning when Harry went down to breakfast, the news was playing in the kitchen. The reporter was halfway through a report on a escaped criminal. "...the public is warned that Black is armed and extremely dangerous. A special hot line has been set up, and any sighting of Black should be reported immediately." Uncle Vernon was staring over the top of his paper. "No need to to tell us he's no good," he snorted, "Look at the state of him, the filthy layabout! Look at his hair!" He shot a nasty look at Harry, whose messy hair had always been a source of annoyance to him.

The reporter went on, "The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries will announce today-" "Hang On!" Uncle Vernon shouted at the reporter. "You didn't tell us where that Manic's escaped from! What us is that? Lunatic could be coming up the street right now! When will they learn that hanging's the only way to deal with these people?" Aunt Petunia, who was at the window, said, "Very true."

Uncle Vernon finished his tea and glanced at his watch. "I'd better be off in a minute, Petunia. Marge's train gets in at ten." Harry, who had been thinking about the Broomstick Servicing Kit, brought his attention back to the present. "Aunt Marge?" he blurted out. "Sh-she's not coming here, is she?"  
-*

The night after the meeting Nagisa went home to hear his parents fighting once again. They were trying, he could bee that, but it just wasn't working. That night he made his decision. He was going to Hogwarts with Karma.

Class E had a plan to meet at the pool to talk about what everyone was planning to do. His situation at home was tiring him out and he was trying not to let it show but he suspected that Karma knew, or at least could guess. Karma had always found out anything that he wanted to know.

He was one of the last to show up. Karma was sitting on Koro sensei's lifeguards seat. Nagisa took a seat next to Kaede. After that Kurashi came through the tree line.

"Alright," said Karma, gaining everyone's attention, "Megu, write everyone's answer down." The former female class representative drew out a pencil and paper. "I'll just list everyone on their class number." He pulled out a page with the names of the students.

Nagisa couldn't help but think Karma was being weirdly organized but than again maybe he was already trying to come up with a plan.

"Since I'm first, the answer is yes, I'm going." he announced. Everyone rolled their eyes, "Duh, we all know." said Terasaka. Megu already had his answer written down before he said anything. "Fine, fine. Yuma Isagai."

Everyone turned to the formal male class representative. "Uh, I don't think I will. I still need to work and I got accepted into a school that will allow that." He looked like he was expecting the rest of the class to be disappointed with him. Karma only nodded and moved on.

"So, Okajima, what about you?" everyone went to look at the local pervert. "Yeah, I think that I'll go too." Megu wrote that down. "OK, Hinata Okano?" "Um, no, I don't think I will." "How about you, Manami?" "Uh, um, yeah, Hogwarts had a really good potion's professor."

There was a murmur of agreement. "Mega Kataoka?" He read off the paper. "Yes, I'll go with you." She said with writing on the paper in front of her. "Kaede?" "No, I don't think so." She was thinking about Nagisa. He was going to go to the school that his mother wanted so there was no point in her going to that school.

"Kanzaki, what will you do?" "I don't think I'll go." "Ok, Masayoshi." "I think that my parents would want me to everything I can for justice. To do honor to the name the gave me." "Kurashi?" "Yup, I want to see the animals that live in England." "Yeah, makes sense. Nagisa?" Nagisa looked at his feet. "Yeah, I'll go." he whispered.

Everyone was a seemed a little shocked, including Karma. Kaede leaned over and said, "Are you sure? I thought that you were really worried about getting into that other school." With a deep sigh he said, "Yeah, I was but this school in England needs help. I think that if I have the ability to help I will." "Well then I want to change me answer." she said. Megu crossed something out and wrote something else down.

"Well, Sugaya, where will you be going?" "Nah, I've got my own plans." "Fair, Sugino?" "I'm going to say no to, sorry guys." Karma just shrugged his shoulders. "Takebayashi?" Takebayashi pushed up his glasses. "No, I can't either."

"What about you Chiba?" Chiba looked over at Hayama. Even though she couldn't see his eyes she could see what he was thinking. "Yes, I'll be there." they nodded at each other. "Terasaka, do you think a blockhead like you can cut it?" "Shut up," he growled, while his friends laughed. "yeah, OK I'll go." "I already said I'm going." Nakamura said before he could call her name.

"Yeah, yeah, Kirara, what are you doing?" "I'm not going." the scary girl said simply. "Hayama~?" he said in a way that was implying something. "Yes, me too." "Hara?" "No, my skills aren't really needed right? Old schools have a lot of house elves that can do sewing so you guys do your best."

"Next is, Yuzuki Fuwa" said Karma, reading from the paper again. "Hm, no i don't think I will." "OK, Maehara. Gonna hit on all those English girls." "Yeah, why not?" he said, unashamed. "Then, its Minura." "There's no technology allowed there so I think that I'll go somewhere where I can learn more about directing."

"Wait," said Kanzaki, "does that mean that you can't use Ritsu, or take her with you?" Karma nodded, "Yeah, there's no technology so no Ritsu."

"Whatever, what are you doing, Maramatsu?" "I want to go see all the different foods. So yes, I want to go." "Taka Yada?" "No, I'm staying." "Yoshida?" "Yeah, I'm staying here too. Someone's got to look after the bikes." "And lastly Itona." He looked down and thought about it for a moment. "There's something I want to find out so I'm going too."

"Got all that, Megu?" Karma said looking down at her. "Yup," she said, finishing up righting the list. "Well," Isogai said, standing up, "since I'm not going to England I'll take my leave. I'll leave it to you guys to give the list to Karasuma Sensei."

As he left, all the rest of the others who weren't going said their goodbyes and left with him. This left 15 people by the pool.

"Since we have a few hours left lets come up with a plan." said Megu. "Don't we don't really have any information," Nakamura pointed out, "all we know is that he is really dangerous. Usually we have more information before we start but their going to throw is in there." At this statement everyone looked a little disheartened. "Then we get the information." said Karma offhandedly. Terasaka growled at him, "How are you suggesting we do that?" Karma shrugged, "Night bus?"

"How will a bus that runs as night help us in Japan?" asked Maehara. Karma smirked at him. "The night bus is a transport for stranded witches and wizards." he said in a weird voice, like he was imitating someone. "All you need to do is stick out your wand and it will come and take you anywhere for a small fee. We can take it in groups of two and three to scoop out the area." Megu nodded, "Yeah, that's a good idea. When we are not in school we should use our nicknames." There was a murmur of agreement among the crowd. "Can we change our nicknames though." said Kaede. Nagisa silently agreed; he didn't want to be called 'Gender' anymore. "But we already know each other by those names." argued Karma. "We don't really have time to come up with other names." said Megu.

"Hogwarts has never had a transfer student, we're going to stand out." said Okada quietly. Karma stood up and said, "Exactly, so we're going to have a lot of attention on us. It would be weird if we were all in the same year." "What are you suggesting?" asked Itona. Karma had a devilish look on his face. "We should enroll in different years." "That is a dumb plan." said Terasaka, "We're the same age, how are we going to be in different years?" Karma rolled his eyes. "They don't know that. Your bigger than I am so, your in a year above me."

Megu bit her lip, "That might work but I don't know. We'll need to have Mr. Karasuma help us. Do you think we can pull something like that off?" "Of course. We are graduates of the Assassination Classroom." Said Karma, confidently.

This is the end.

I didn't want everyone coming because I wanted to at least try to give everyone equal attention. I just choose the people that would be the most useful (or my favorite), but I it was really hard to cut down on people. Everyone already knows what Harry Potter is doing right now so I didn't put very much of him in the chapter but he will be in future chapters.


	3. Gathering Information or The Knight Bus

"English"

 _"Japanese"_

Chapter 3 - Gathering Information or The Knight Bus

After the meeting, Karasuma took the list back to the ministry of magic. It seemed a little odd to him to him that the kids wanted to be in different years, ranging from 2nd to 6th but he understood why they wanted to do this and he really believed that they were strong enough to over come anything. But playing a role of being up to three years younger was going to be hard for some of them.

When he got to Fudge's office, there was an ancient man standing there with crescent moon glasses and a twinkle in his eye as well as an older woman with a very stern look about her. "Ah, Mr. Karasuma," greeted Fudge smugly. "I was just telling Professor Dumbledore, the head master of Hogwarts, about the situation."

"Its a pleasure to meet you." he said, holding out his hand. Karasuma took his hand in a firm grip. "I have a list of the students that would like to go to your school, if you are willing to accept them." Mr. Dumbledore smiled at him and said, "Straight to business. Anyone who is willing to learn is welcome to Hogwarts. I have to ask why the wanted to come to Hogwarts rather than the school in Japan?"

Karasuma was hoping that Fudge would have either told the true or come up with an excuse on his own but since he didn't say anything Karasuma had to come up with something on his own. "Hogwarts has a very good reputation. The students on this list are very eager to get ahead and they believe that going to your school will allow them a rare opportunity. They range from years 2 to 6." It was subtle but the woman tightened her lips at that.

He handed to list to the Head Master -

Akabane, Karma - year 5

Chiba, Ryunosuke - year 5

Hayami, Rinka - year 5

Horible, Itona - year 2

Kataoka, Megu - year 4

Kayano, Kaede - year 3

Kimura, Masayoshi - year 4

Kurashi, Hinano - year 4

Maehara, Hiroto - year 5

Muramatsu, Takuya - year 6

Nakamura, Rio - year 5

Okajima, Taiga - year 5

Okuda, Manami - year 3

Shiota, Nagisa - year 3

Terasaka, Ryuma - year 6

The woman beside the Had Master, who was yet to be introduced, said, "Do all of these students speak English?" Karasuma nodded, "Yes, all of them are very fluent in English. It is a required subject for our school."

The Head Master put his finger to his chin, as if he was pondering something. "I would have liked to interview each of them but we are a little short on time. So instead we will have them come to the Leaky cauldron in a week so they can be sorted." While he didn't let anything show, he was worried about them being separated. They were so close, putting them in houses that didn't get along would be hard on them.  
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At the same time, Chiba and Hayami were standing together by the roadside. At their feet each of them had a duffel bag with a video camera, note pads, rope and a change of clothes. They were instructed to find a good place to snipe their target, on the off change that they got Black outside of school. They were also to take pictures that showed them the areas in different areas. Each of them had a decent amount of money. Karma has said that all they needed to do was hold out your wand arm.

They nodded at each other and Chiba held out his right arm. There was a loud BANG! followed by bright lights belonging to a massive, purple triple decker bus. Over the top of the windshield were the words 'The Knight Bus' in golden letters. Out of it stepped the conductor, in a purple suite. He was just a couple of years older then them.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this evening." He stepped aside and let them aboard. "Can we sit up on the top?" asked Hayami. "'Course ya can." said the conductor and led them up the wooden staircase, past all the beds and lamps.

Chiba turned and paid him for hot chocolate for each of them. They each got their own bed but choose to sit on the same one. There were a couple of other people sleeping around them. The bus jerked forward and rocked as they moved. Out the window they could see trees, lampposts and anything else in the way jumped out of the way of the bus instead of the bus driver moving to avoid obstacles.

 _"There is a newspaper next to you."_ Chiba pointed out. Hayami leaned over and picked up the paper that had been left behind. She looked it over and read it out loud.

 ** _BLACK STILL AT LARGE_**

 _Sirius Black, possibly the most infamous prisoner ever to be held in Azkaban fortress, is still eluding capture, the Ministry of Magic confirmed today._  
 _"We are doing all we can to recapture Black," said the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, this morning, "and we beg the magical community to remain calm."_  
 _Fudge has been criticized by some members of the International Federation of Warlocks for informing the Muggle Prime Minister of the crisis._  
 _"Well, really, I had to, don't you know," said an irritable Fudge. "Black is mad. He's a danger to anyone who crosses him, magic or Muggle. I have the Prime Minister's assurance that he will not breathe a word of Black's true identity to anyone. And let's face it - who'd believe him if he did?"_  
 _While Muggles have been told that Black is carrying a gun (a kind of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other), the magical community lives in fear of a massacre like that of twelve years ago, when Black murdered thirteen people with a single curse._

" _Do you think that he really you really think that he did that?"_ she asked. Chiba shook his head, " _I don't know, but if he's half as dangerous as he's made out to be, we have to be really careful. I doesn't sound like he actually has a gun be we need to be ready just in case."_ As he said this the conductor came up with their hot chocolate. "'ere did you say your goin'?" "Diagon Alley. We need to get school supplies for this year." said Chiba.

The Conductor gave them an interested look, "Din't know that foreign students got supplies in London." "Not normally," said Hayami. "However, we are both going to Hogwarts this year."  
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While this was going on Karma, Terasaka, Nagisa and Maehara all went to Diagon Ally through flow powder. Walking along the street Terasaka looked over at Karma and said, _"What's the point of us coming in different ways and one at a time. It's a pain_." Karma rolled his eyes, walking up to a shop window displaying a broom, and said, " _Because the flow networks are being watched and we don't want to be suspicious. All of us need to go shopping so we won't look that odd but we still don't want to bring too much attention to ourselves."_

Nagisa walked along behind them and listened to them argue. He thought that he would be tired of fighting but this was different. They were friends and so there was no hard feeling between them and no one was trying to hurt the other.

The vibrating in his pocket told him that someone was calling. Mr. Karasuma's name was displayed on his screen. As he answered the phone he couldn't help but think how much he was going to miss using his phone. " _Hello, Mr. Karasuma." "Hello, Nagisa, I assume that you are not at home. Who are you with?"_ Karamsuma was not one for small talk. He decided to use their nicknames, hoping that he would caught on. " _I'm with Halfway Chuuibyou, Womanizing Bastard, and Pseudo Takaoda."_ After a pause he said, " _That's fine. Tell everyone that The Head Master of the school, Dumbledore, wants to meet with all of you in one week at a place called the Leaky Cauldron."_ Nagisa nodded, " _Alright, thank you. The four of us are already staying there but I'll tell everyone else."_

The next day, the four of the spent most of the late morning into the afternoon trying to talk to people in Diagon Alley, to get information. Then the four of them when to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Nagisa and Karma were in one group and Maehara and Teresaka were a little ways away. " _We can't go in yet."_ He looked over to the said and yelled, " _Hey! Come back over here. We're not going in until we have better tools and more people."_ Nagisa looked over at him and said, " _Are you sure? Why can't we go in yet?"_ Karma sighed and tipped his head back and replied, " _I've never been here before personally, but there are a lot of rumors about this place. Centaurs and spiders, things like that."_

It was late at night by the time they got back to the pub. Before they got the the entrance Nagisa noticed a man by the door and pointed it out to everyone. He was standing there, looking like he was expecting someone. He was obviously cold and irriatated. " _That's the Minister of Magic."_ Karma said. A loud BANG! announced the arrival of the Knight Bus. Out stepped a boy just a couple years younger than them. The of them hide in the shadows to wait to see how this played out.

"Thanks," the boy said to the driver. The conductor set a bird cage on the ground. "Well, bye then." said the boy but the conductor was looking passed him to the Minister, who was walked toward them. "There you are, Harry." he said as he gripped the boy's shoulder.

"Blimey! Ern, come 'ere! Come 'ere!" shouted the conductor. The boy, that Karma assumed was the famous Harry Potter, looked like he was expecting to be yelled at.

The young conductor jumped onto the sidewalk beside them. "What didja call Neville, Minister?" "Neville?" asked the Minister, "This is Harry Potter." The young conductors eyes lit up at that. "I knew it! Ern! Ern! Guess 'oo Neville is, Ern! 'E's 'Arry Potter! I can see 'is scar!" The Minister looked like he was getting even more irritated. "Yes, well, I'm very glad the Knight Bus picked Harry up, but he and I need to step inside the Leaky Caulron now..." The Minister led the boy inside. The conductor and driver followed, carrying a trunk.

Karma turned to the group and said, " _Listen, that boy is Harry Potter, the target of Black. He used a false name so we shouldn't get too involved with him yet. Plus none of us know what house we are in."_ Maehara tilted his head slightly and said, " _What do you mean, like the students have houses together instead of dorms?"_ Karma shook his head. He had forgotten that Maehara was Muggle born and the only exposure he had to the magic community was at Kunugigaoka. " _No, the students are divided into one of four groups, depending on their personality. Some of them don't get along with each other, just on principle alone."_


	4. coming together or Leaky Cauldron

So a couple of question were asked and I'm sorry for being a little unclear. I this is an AU where Kunugigaoka Junior High is a magic school. I imagine that Karma would come from a pure-blood house. It is suppose to take place right after the anime, that is why every one is rushing around to get as much information as possible and why they had to decide right away. I really appreciate all the feed back.

"English"

 _"Japanese"_

Chapter 4 - The team comes together or The Leaky Cauldron

For the first time in his life, Harry had complete freedom. He got up whenever he wanted and went whatever he wanted. He had no intention of going back to the Muggle world. He spent his days watching the different witches, wizards and even dwarfs in the Leakey Cauldron. Most of the people coming were from the country but there was a weird influx of kids from Asia. They stayed in groups of two or three but they would occasionally try to start conversations with the other people in the tavern. They left him alone and mostly ignored him. They even avoided eye contact if they could.

He spent a lot of time in Diagon Alley, little did he know that he was being followed. He would often do his homework outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. From time to time he would even get help from Florean Fortescue himself who also gave him free sundaes every half hour.

While eating his ice cream one day, one of the Asian kids who was a little shorter than he was walked up to him. "Hello," he said a little awkwardly. Harry looked up and gave a small wave. "Hi, my name is Harry." He stuck out his hand. "I am Nagisa." he said, taking the hand. "Why don't you sit down. Um, where are you from?" He offered, scooting to the side. "Thank you. I'm from Japan" Said Nagisa, sitting down.

"So, do you mind me asking what brings you here?" Harry asked nervously. Nagisa smiled brightly, "There was trouble in my school, one of the teachers died, so some of the students are going to different schools. Hogwarts has a really good reputation so we are going there." Harry was surprised, he had never heard of students transferring before. "How did the teacher die?" he asked. Nagisa got a sudden nervous look. "Um, Koro sensei was killed. There was an assassin..." "An assassin!" Harry exclaimed. Nagisa winced, "Well, he came into the school and killed him, so I suppose that would be what you would call it."

Nagisa looked away. Harry looked over to see one of the Japanese girls with a low ponytail motioning him over. "Sorry," Nagisa said, standing up, "I have to go but it was a really nice to meet you."  
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Karma was looking around the shops while they were a little different from the shops at home they sold just about the same things. The others were getting ready to meet with the Head Master tonight. He apparently was going to use the private office to talk to them. He came across an interesting stores, Quality Quidditch Supplies. He wasn't on any sports teams but he did like flying and playing Quidditch for fun every now and then.

There was a huge crowd of people surrounding a brand new broom. It looked pretty neat. "Just come out - prototype - " Said one wizard to another. He glanced over to see Harry Potter standing on the other side of the man who said that. "It's that fastest broom in the world, isn't it Dad?" said a little kid, hanging off a man's arm.

There was a sign that announced -

** THE FIREBOLT **  
THIS STATE-OF-THE-ART RACING BROOM SPORTS A STREAM-LINED, SUPERFINE HANDLE OF ASH, TREATED WITH A DIAMOND-HARD POLISH AND HAND-NUMBERED WITH ITS OWN REGISTRATION NUMBER. EACH INDIVIDUALLY SELECTED BIRCH TWIG IN THE BROOMTAIL HAS BEEN HONED TO AERODYNAMIC PERFECTION, GIVING THE FIREBOLT UNSURPASSABLE BALANCE AND PINPOINT PRECISION. THE FIREBOLT HAS AN ACCELERATION OF 150 MILES AN HOUR IN TEN SECONDS AND INCORPORATES AN UNBREAKABLE BRAKING CHARM. PRICE ON REQUEST.

This was going to be really expensive. He wasn't about to spend any money on something like this. Karma moved around to the side to get a better view. He had heard that Harry Potter was the youngest seeker in the century and that his parents left him a fortune. It wouldn't surprise him if he bought it.

He watched Harry walk away, he was heading towards the books store. Chiba and Hayami were over in that area. He picked up his phone and called Hayami, " _Hello."_ she greeted him. _"Hey I just found Potter, he's heading your way."_ In the background he could hear, "Stop it, stop it. Arg, get over here.". _"Alright,"_ she said, " _We are about to check out. We were going to go the the pet shop afterward, but we'll stick around until then."_ They each hung up the phone.

Chiba looked over at her and simply replied, " _Karma."_ He nodded. The shop keeper handed each of them the bound green books, which were still struggling, that they set beside all the other books that they bought. They thanked and payed him and walked out of the store.

They watched from the other side of the street, pretending to do be interested in the store of the other side of the street. They watched him from the window. He didn't get one of the monster books but he did get all of the other books on the list. He spent a lot of time in the store but finally left.

Afterwards they went to the pet store where Hayami fawned over the cat but they didn't end up buying any. Chiba was the only person that she felt comfortable enough to show this side of her.

They two of them headed back to the pub. Almost everyone was already in the meeting room. Megu was waiting in the parlor. _"You two are the last. Follow me."_ The three of them walked into the office in the back, that apparently belong to Tom.

The room was a bit crowded with all of the students standing around next to the walls. Sitting at the desk was an old man with a crooked nose and a strict looking woman standing beside him. In middle of the room, where a normal chair would be, there was a stool with an old hat sitting on top.

"Is everyone is here?" Asked the woman. Karma shrugged and said, "Yeah, looks like it." "Alright," She picked up a list. I'll read off your name and you will come up here and be sorted into your house. Your house is like your family, you can gain points together but it you break the rules you will lose points. We'll start with year 2."

The seem of the hat opened up like a mouth and it started to sing. "Oh you may not think I'm pretty, but don't judge on what you see, I'll eat myself if you can find a smarter hat than me. New students are here and this it just for you, so sit up on chair and I'll tell you what to do. _"_ Almost every all the students were amazed by it.

"Horible, Itona." she read out loud and picked up the hat. Itona stepped up front and sat on the stool. She set the hat on top of his head, it nearly covered his eyes. After a moment it said, "Slytherin." she waited for them to say something, but everyone was silent. "That all for year 2. Kayano, Kaede." she said slowly, struggling with name a little. Kaede stepped up anyway, "Hufflepufff."Once again she was only met with silence. She decided to just get through the rest of the names without stopping. Some of the Japanese names where a little difficult and she was glad that read through the name beforehand. "Okuda, Manami." A small, nervous looking girl with two braids just past her shoulders came forward. The hat barely touched her hair when it shouted, "Ravenclaw!" "Shiota, Nagisa." A short boy stepped forward. It took a few more seconds, "Gryffindor."

"Next is year 4. Kataok, Megu." A girl with a low ponytail came to the front. "Ravenclaw." "Kimura, Masayoshi." 'That was a mouthful.' she thought. A plain looking boy with a determined look on his face. Almost immediately it said, "Gryffindor." "Kurashi, Hinano." a cheerful looking girl with bright orange hair walked to the front confidently. "Hufflepuff."

"Year 5" she said looking at the paper. While she was doing this Karma was already in front of her. "Mr. Akabane, I presume." "Yeah, alright lets see where I will go." She hadn't even let go of the hat when it shouted, "Sytherin." He was smiling mischievously as he walked back to his spot. "Ahem," she cleared her throat before continuing. "Chiba, Ryunosuke." A tall boy with hair covering his eyes came forward. "Hufflepuff." He when to stand next to the girl he came in with. "Hayami, Rinka." That girl came forwad. "Hufflepuff." She walked back and high fived the boy. "Maehara, Hiroto." A boy with shoulder length hair walked up to the stool. "Gryffindor." "Okajima, Taiga." A boy with very short, black hair stepped forward. "Gryffindor."

"That is the end of the 5th years. Now for the 6th years. "Muramatsu, Takuya." A blond boy with a distinct smile walked up the the front. It took a moment "Hufflepuff." And lastly "Terasaka, Ryuma." A tall bulky boy walked up to the front. "Gryffinfor."

"Now that everyone is sorted let me tell you some of the rules from the school." Said the old man behind the desk.  
_

Harry had ran into Ron and Hermione, they were mad at each other at the moment. Crookshanks, Hermione's new cat, had tried to eat Scabbers, Ron's old pet rat. Percy, who was now a head boy, couldn't find his badge. He wouldn't let any of his brothers leave until he found it. Ron left Scabbers rat tonic at the bar. Since he couldn't leave, he offered to get it for his.

It was dark now, and he was halfway to the bar when he heard the angry voices of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley coming from the parlor. He didn't really to listen them to argue but he stopped when he heard his name. He moved closer to the parlor door. "...makes no sense not to tell him." Mr. Weasely said. Harry's got a right to know. I've tried to tell Fudge, but he insists on treating Harry like a child. He's 13 years old and -" "Arthur," said Mrs. Weasley shrilly. "Do you really want to send Harry back to school with that hanging over him? For heaven's sake, he's happy not knowing!" Harry thought that she thought of him the same way. If he were in there, he would have argued with her.

"I don't want to make him miserable, I want to put him on his guard!" said Mr. Weasley. "You know what Harry and Ron are like, wandering off by themselves - they've ended up in the Forbidden Forest twice! But Harry mustn't do that this year! When I think what could have happened to him that night he ran away from home! If the Knight Bus hadn't picked him up, I'm prepared to bet he would have been dead before the Ministry found him." Harry was also very thankful that the Knight Bus picked him up.

"But he's not dead, he's fine, so what's the point -" "Molly, they say Sirius Black's mad, and maybe he is but he was clever enough to escape from Azkaban, and that's supposed to be impossible." Mr. Weasley said sternly. Harry had started to think that with magic, nothing was truly impossible. "It's been three weeks, and no one's seen hide nor hair of him. and I don't care what Fudge keeps telling the Daily Prophet, we're no nearer catching Black than inventing self-spelling wands. The only thing we know for sure is what Black's after -" "But Harry ill be perfectly safe at Hogwarts." Mrs. Weasley said. Harry wanted that to be true to Hogwarts could be dangerous as well.

"We thought Azkaban was perfectly safe. If Black can break out of Azkaban, he can break into Hogwarts." Said Mr. Wealsy. "But no one's really sure that Black's after Harry." A thud that sounded like Mr. Weasley's fist on the table. "Molly, how many times do I have to tell you? They didn't report it in the press because Fudge wanted it kept quiet, but Fudge went out to Azkaban the night Black escape. The guards told Fudge that Blacks been talking in his sleep for a while now. Always the same words: 'He's at Hogwarts...he's at Hogwarts.'" Harry got a chill down his spine at that.

"Black is deranged, Molly, and he wants Harry dead. If you ask me, he thinks murdering Harry will bring You-Know-Who back to power. Back lost everything the night Harry stopped You-Know-Who, and he's had 12 years alone in Azkaban to brood on that..." Silence followed, and Harry leaned closer to the door hoping to hear more.

"Well, Arthur, you must do what you think is right. But you're forgetting Albus Dumbledore. I don't think anything could hurt Harry at Hogwarts while Dumbledore's Headmaster. I suppose he know about all this?" said Mrs. Weasley, defeat in her voice. "Of course he knows. We had to ask him if he minds the Azkaban guards stationing themselves around the entrances to the school grounds. He wasn't happy about it, but he agreed." "Not happy? Why shouldn't he be happy, if they're there to catch Black?"

Harry wondered what kind of guards were at a wizard prison. "Dumbledore isn't fond of the Azkaban guards. Nor am I, if it come to that.. but when you're dealing with a wizard like Black, you sometimes have to jion forces with those you'd rather avoid." said Mr. Weasley. "If they save Harry-" "Then I will never say another word against them." he said.

"Dumbledore is actually here now. Sorting new tranfer students. It's the first time in history. Why this year, at such a dangerous time..." he trailed off. "It's late, Molly, we'd better go up..." As he heard the chairs move he hid out of sight. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley didn't see him as they climbed up the stairs.  
_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

They are sorted based on what characteristic they show the most.

Gryffindor - bravery, daring, nerve, and chivalry  
Hufflepuff - hard work, dedication, patience, loyalty, and fair play  
Ravenclaw - intelligence, knowledge, and wit  
Slytherin - ambition, cunning and resourcefulness

I tried to use the dialogue from the books, changing only where needed to fit the story.


	5. The Terrible Train or the Dementor

Finally, everyone is going to school. I've been following the book and I forget how long it took for them to actually get everyone who reviewed, Thank you again. It really make me very happy.

 _"Japanese"_

"English"

Spells

Chapter 5 - the Terrible Train or the Dementor

Harry had been woken by Tom, who gave him some tea. It wasn't long before Ron burst into the room, pulling on his sweatshirt. "The sooner we get on the train, the better. At least I can get away from Percy at Hogwarts." He said. "Now he's accusing me of dripping tea on his photo of Penelope Clearwater. You know, his girlfriend. She's hidden her face under the frame because her nose has gone all blotchy..." "I've got something to tell you," Harry started.

He was interrupted by Fred and George. They popped into the room happily, to congratulate Ron on once again making Percy mad. Harry thought to himself that Percy wasn't very hard to irritate.

At breakfast he heard Mrs. Weasley talking to Hermione and Ginny about a love potion that she had made a lot time ago. was reading the paper. When he sat down to eat, Ron asked him about what he wanted to say but he told him that he would talked about it later as Percy stomped into the room.

On the other side of the building the only people that hadn't already left from the former Class E was the members of Terasaka's group that decided to come, Itona, Terasaka and Muramatsu. The three of them were still at the breakfast table with mostly untouched food. _"As I thought."_ Muramatsu. _"What are you complaining about?"_ Growled Terasaka.

Muramatsu held a finger in the air, " _Food made with magic just isn't as good as when you make it by hand." "This is even more gross than your food."_ Said Itona coolly. The bartender came over and smiled at them, showing off his toothless mouth. "Everything OK here?" he asked in a friendly manner. "We have to go anyway." said Terasaka before Itona could complain.

The three of them got up and went to the door to get to the station. Terasaka wondered why they couldn't just take floo power or something to get to the train station but just shook it off. Karma may be more irritating than anyone he had ever met but he really did know what he was talking about when it came to magic. He had heard that he came from a really wealthy magic family who loved to travel.

A while later, at the train station, Okajima was standing near the entrance to the portal, watching people enter. Hayami had pointed out what Potter looked like earlier, that was the only reason he recognized him when he came through the barrier. Just after him a girl and a boy with bright red hair ran through. "Ah, there's Penelope!" shouted the boy, as he soothed his hair out. He walked over to the a really pretty girl. Harry and the red hair girl started giggling at him.

Okajima followed them as they got on the train to find a place to leave their luggage. He found a compartment that only had two other people in it.

On his way he passed Nakamura, Megu, Kaede, Kurashi. They had all put their things in the train already and were surveying the area. _"Nakamura and Kaede, you two go over there and make sure there are no threats."_ commanded Megu. " _What are we even looking for?"_ asked Kurashi. _"Anything thay might be considered a threat or any sign of a dangerous person."_ Kaede tilted his hear to her head to the side, " _So we are going to be serious for the entire year?" "Are you going to complain? I thought that you would be the best at something like this?"_ Nakamura grinned at her.

Kaede puffed out her cheeks and started walking in the direction that Megu had told her. Nakaura chased after her. They got to the edge of the platform and looked around the room for any suspicious people. There was a lot of other people that were also looking carefully around the room.

" _Over here, quickly!"_ Nakamura grabbed Kaede's arm and pulled her into the shadows. Just as she did a middle aged man with a thin red hair that was receding led Harry Potter over to where they had just been standing.

"There's something I've got to tell you before you leave -" said the man harshly. "It's all right, Mr. Weasley," Harry responded, "I already know." The man, Mr. Weasley looked surprised, "You know? How could you know?" Harry shifted uncomfortably. "I -er -I heard you and Mrs. Weasley talking last night. I couldn't help hearing. Sorry-" Kaede pressed her face to the side of Nakamura's head and whispered as quietly as she could, " _We have to go or else we'll miss the train."_ Nakumura turned to her and replied, " _I known but I really want to know what's going on."_ Kaede gave her a serious look but stayed put.

The man gave him a concerned look. "Harry, you must be scared-" "I'm not. Really." Harry looked like he was trying to brave. "I'm not trying to be a hero, but seriously, Sirius Black can't be worse than Lord Voldemort, can he?" The man flinched at that. " _I thought that name was taboo."_ Kaede whispered. _"It is. I think that Potter just doesn't care."_ Nakamura responded.

"Arthur!" came a woman's voice from a few feet away. The girls nodded at each other. Kaede went first, heading the opposite way from the direction of the voice. They made it just before they shut the doors. They passed Karma and Nagisa, who were traveling together, despite being put in houses that was suppose to be fighting.

Nakamura made a quick signal with her finger, saying that they had information to share. Karma nodded slightly. They had way of getting information to each other. Kaede would tell Nagisa, who would in turn to tell Karma. He claimed that all of them talking would look weird, even if they were from the same school. She saw where he was coming from but this was going to be a weird year for them.

Karma walked away with Nagisa in tow. It wasn't long before he came to a particular door and slid it open. Inside was a thin, pale boy a little taller than Nagisa on one side of the car and two boys, one a tall and bulky and the other short and a bit thick. "Who do you think you are?" snapped the thin boy. "Akabane." said Karma confidently, "I would think that you would try to be a little more kind to me." A dark smile cross Karma's face.

The pale boy looked a little shocked. "Sorry Akabane, I didn't recognize you." He moved over so Karma and Nagisa could sit down. "This is Crabbe and Goyle." He said and gestured to each of them. Karma put a hand on top of Nagisa's head, "This is my friend Nagisa." Nagisa found something about this boy a little off putting but he couldn't quiet put his finger on it.

Nagisa looked up Karma and asked, "Do you two know each other?" The pale boy stuck his nose in the air and said, "It's important for all the purebood families to be familiar with each other." Karma leaned back casually, "We haven't actually met until today but we know who the other it. Malfoy is a little more socially active then I am." Malfoy looked like he had just gotten the better of someone.

Karma and Nagisa sat and listened to those three talk. Most of it was Malfoy bragging, and Nagisa was starting to get a little tired of it. He thought about Asuno, that was who Malfoy reminded him of. Although Asuno was insanely talented and this boy just seemed to brag about anything he thought he could hold over others. Asuno would have been terrifying as an assassin.

"I'm bored already." Karma said. Nagisa gave him a look, this wasn't surprising but still, he was always so blunt. "Have you met Potter?" asked Malfoy smugly. "Nope." said Karma offhandedly. Nagisa wasn't going to tell them that he actually met Potter. He wondered if he should. "He's such a loser." continued Crabbe. Nagisa was glad that he didn't say anything. "I'll stay here." He offered, a little afraid that Potter would recognize him and make this ride even more awkward.

Malfoy passed him and, on the way out Karma grabbed his shoulder and dragged him along. That was how he found himself outside the door of Harry potter. He did his best to move behind the group.

"Well, look who it is," said Malfoy, as he opened the door. "Potty and the Weasel." Crabbe and Goyle chuckled. Karma looked unimpressed at the lame joke. "I heard your father finally got his hands on some gold this summer, Weasely. Did your mother die of shock?" The red haired boy jumped up, knocking over a basket that held a cat. The man sleeping in the corner snorted a little. "So, are we just here to pick a fight? Because I'm fine with that." said Karma.

"Who's that?" asked Malfoy as he stepped back, completely ignoring Karma. Harry got up and said, "New Teacher. What were you saying, Malfoy?" Karma got a tired look, he was obviously disappointed that they weren't actually going to get into a fight. "C'mon." said Malfoy as he stalked out of the room. Nagisa wondered if Potter even noticed he was there.

While they were doing this, Kurashi was still talking with the two boys she had met earlier. One was younger than she was named Colin, who held a huge camera around his neck. He was shocked when she said she didn't know very much about Harry Potter, just his name. The other was her age, named Justin. He wasn't as big a fan of Potter but he did like magical creatures. He said that since he was muggle-born, seeing them for the first time was one of the most memorable things in his life. Kurashi agreed, although both her parents were both wizards, magical creatures were the greatest part of the magical world. She wanted to discover some sort of magical insect someday. Colin was in Gryfindor but Justin was in Hufflepuff like her.

Suddenly the lights went out. "Whoa!" shouted Colin. The boys started moving around. "Sit down." she said. "What's going on?" asked Justin. Kurashi sighed and took out her wand, "I don't know, Lumos." The tip of her wand illuminated, casting shadows on their faces. "Something might be wrong with the train. If they can't fix it they might send carriages or cars or something to pick us up. If they do that, we need something to protect us from the rain." "That's a good point..." said Justin, nodding his head.

As she stood to get her raincoat out of her trunk, the door slid open. In the doorway was a cloaked figure whose head almost reached the ceiling, its face was hidden by the cloak. Her stomach sank at the sight of it. Shinigami scared her before but it was like this thing was from a completely different world. She glanced at its hand. It looked like gray and slimy, like it had been decaying in water.

It took a long, shaking breath and it felt like she couldn't breath. She was so cold, she felt like some invisible fog was going to swallow her and she'd never come back out again. Her knees were weak and she felt like she was going to fall. An memory or Koro Sensei flashed through her mind.

It left as quietly as it came. It's body seemed to float away. Both Colin and Justin were shaken. She tried to give them a reassuring smile. "That was scary but it didn't seem to want to hurt us." She sunk into the seat. "Are, are you Ok?" Colin asked. She looked at him and said, "Of course, it didn't touch me or anything." Justin pointed at her. "You were rigid and twitching." She just shrugged it of. "It as so cold." said Colin.

A young, shabby looking man with brown hair sprinkled with gray poked his head in the door. "Is everyone all right?" Kurashi nodded, "Yeah, we're fine." He nodded back and continued on his way.

The rest of the ride she tried to make conversation with them after the train got moving again but neither of them wanted to talk. They were both to scared to have any sort of pleasant conversation. It was a long 10 minutes before they got to the school.

As she stepped off the train she looked around to try and spot the rest of the former class E. "Firs' years an' transfer students, this way!" she looked over to see a hairy half-giant waving for students to come to them. "Four to a boat." Karashi got in the boat Okajima was already sitting in. A short blond haired boy who introduced himself as Alex stepped in after. After almost all the boats were full Okuda walked up to them and asked if she could sit with them.

As they set off kurashi let her hand fall into the icy water. She had hoped to see a mermaid. Instead of seeing a mermaid, she saw the shadow of a giant squid under the water.

Upon arriving, a tiny wizard, shorter than the first years, was waiting for them."Everyone gather around, gather around." he called them over. "My name in Professor Flitwick. When we go inside you will be sorted and go to your houses but before that the transfer students with be announced to everyone."

He looked at Maehara, who was standing up front, and said, "You have been sorted, haven't you?" "Uh, yeah." he answered. "Alright," he smiled at them, "everyone form a line, transfer students in the front. Now, follow me into the hall. After everyone is sorted the rules will be explained." He let the way.

Inside was lit by thousands of candles floating over the tables. Karma was walking behind Nakamura. He leaned forward and whispered, " _I sure hope none of them drip on us."_ She turned back to him, her smile matching his.

While this was happening, Harry was with Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey. By the time he got back, professor Flitwich was taking the stood and sorting hat away. When Hermione saw him she said, "Oh, you've missed the Sorting!" "Remember the jerk that was with Malfoy, he's in Slytherin. No surprise there." The tree of them sat down together.

Professor Dumbledore stood before the student body. Harry trusted him, seeing him made his feel calm for the first time since meeting the Dementor. "Welcome!" Dumbledore greeted the students. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast..."

Muramatsu looked at him with a disbelieving look. _"Excellent huh?"_ Chiba and Hayami were sitting just a few seat away. He wished he could sit with Terasaka or Itona so he could talk to them. Dumbledore cleared his throat, "As you will all be aware after their search of the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently playing host to some of the Dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business." Chiba leaned over to Hayami while Dumbledore continued to talk, " _Why didn't the Minister tell us about them?"_ She shrugged her shoulders. "-are not to be fooled by tricks or disguises - or even Invisibility Cloaks." Dumbledore continued on.

Karma bit his fingernail, thinking hard, ' _Is he implying someone here has an Invisibility Cloak? Things like that are pretty rare.'_ he thought. He glanced around at the Slythin table, there were few that could afford something like that. "It is not in the nature of a Dementor to understand pleading or excuses. I therefore warn each and every one of you to give them no reason to harm you. I look to the prefects, and our new Head Boy and Girl, to make sure that no student runs afoul of the Dementors."

Dumbledore paused for a moment. He looked around the hall, looking serious, no one made a sound. "On a happier note, I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year. First, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." Unenthusiastic applause could be heard scattered through the hall. Harry clapped too.

"Look at Snape!" Ron whispered harshly. Snape had wanted that job for years. He was glaring at Professor Lupin, pure hatred filling his eyes. "As to our second new appointment," Dumbledore started, "Well, I am sorry to tell you that Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last year in order to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs. However, I am delighted to say that his place will be filled by none of other than Rubues Hagrid, who has agreed to take on this teaching job in addition to his gamekeeping duties."

"We should've known! Who else would have assigned us a biting book?" Ron exclaimed. Harry stopped clapping when he felt a tapping on his shoulder. He didn't notice the guy he had met in Diagon Alley sitting beside him the whole time. He wondered why he was sitting with the third years, he looked like he was in a year or so behind them. "Um, can I ask a question?" Hermione stuck out a hand across the table. "Hermione Granger. What do you want to know?" He took her hand. "You said that Professor Hagrid would obviously choose a dangerous book. Is he a dangerous person?"

As they were talking food appeared on table before them. "Hagrid wouldn't ever do anything to hurt someone on purpose," answered Harry, "but sometimes he doesn't get see things as dangerous as everyone else does." "He's a very nice person though. " Said Hermione.

While he was filling his plate, Nagisa saw across the hall were Karma was. He was talking to others but at the same time he was tapping two fingers on the table. Nagisa immediately recognized that at the symbol for them to get together; it was a good thing because there was a lot of new information. Harry and his friends, the other introduced as Weasley, were busy talking so he carefully watched Karma. 12 taps and then he rested, he wanted to meet at midnight. Nagisa started copying this so that the others would see, so Karma put his hand on his chin to signal that he knew. This way they could get the message to everyone without being suspicious.


	6. First Lessons or Talons and Tea Leaves

"English"

 _"Japanese"_

Spells

Chapter 6 - First Lessons or Talons and Tea Leaves

Masayoshi peeked out the dormitory door to see if he could get out that way without being seen but it was no use, there were too many people. On the way in up to the dorms, Muramatsu had told him that Karma told Itona that they were going to meet in the Owl Tower. They quickly found out that they can't get into the girls dorm but the girls could come up to their; although they were sure that Nakamura got the message through other means. He went to Muramatsu's room at about 11:30. They agreed that if they were caught they could say that they were worried about their owls.

Muramatsu was waiting behind him to find out if they could get out. He turned about and shook her head. " _There are still to many people out there. Nagisa is still surrounded by people and looks like Maehara is messing around with people too." "They're going to be late."_ Muramastu said. He pointed to the window, " _We can get out this way."_ Masayoshi nodded.

They both went out of the window and climbed down as quickly as they could. Despite the speech about the extra security there was almost no one guarding the grounds. In the distance they saw a hut but there was no light coming from it. Clinging closely to the wall, they scooted around until they got close the the Owl Tower.

There were many open windows for the owls that were flying in and out. With a bit of difficulty, they both managed to climb up the side of the tower and in through the window.

In the center of the room Hirohito, a great horned owl that was orange and black, with two tuffs of feathers that almost looked like cat ears was sitting on a leather glove that Karma was wearing. He was petting if with the forefinger of his other hand. Kurashi, Itona, Chiba, Hayami, Terasaka, Kaede, Okuda, Megu, and Okajima were sitting throughout the room.

As Masayoshi stepped into the room, Karma, without looking up from his bird, said, _"So, you guys finally decided to join us."_ Muramatsu walked past him and sat next to Terasaka and Itona before saying, " _Nagisa and Maehara aren't coming." "Yeah,"_ said Masayoshi, " _they were both held up by the other students so they're probably going to late." "What about_ _Nakamura?_ " said Kaede. Both of them shrugged.

 _"Well they're late," said_ Karma, finally looking up to address the whole room, " _so we're going to start without them." "Are we really going to kill this_ _man? It's not like Koro Sensei, he isn't our target by choice._ " Megu addressed the elephant in the room.

At this everyone looked a little uncomfortable. A big Great Sooty owl came and landed in front of Kurashi and she leaned down and brushed some of the feathers on its head. " _We don't have to."_ Karma stated. " _What are you talking about?"_ demanded Terasaka.

As he did, Nakamura came climbing through the window. " _Sorry, I couldn't get away from my roommates."_ she said. As she stood up a small, Asian Barred owl landed on her shoulder. " _Did I miss anything?" "No,"_ Kaede answered, " _we just started."_

Karma cleared his throat, several more owls came into the tower and landed on or near some of the former class E students. " _As I was saying,"_ he glanced around the room to make sure he wasn't going to be interrupted again, _"there are guards all around the school, mostly in the forest."_ Some of the others shivered at the memory of those things. _"He made it past them once so its possible that he could do it again. If he does that, we don't necessarily have to kill him. As long as we stop him we could give him to them."_

 _"First, how are we going to find them?"_ Okuda said timidly. " _They're in the forest, so we just have to find them."_ stated Chiba. He got a few nervous looks at this. " _Do you really think that it's that easy?"_ said Muramatsu. Chiba shrugged his shoulders, " _I never said it was."_ he said.

Nagisa and Maehara came in together though the window, both of them were a little out of breath. " _We couldn't get out without people noticing."_ Panted Maehara. Nagisa held out an arm for Chikako, his Flores Scopes owl. " _What did we miss?"_ he asked. " _Chiba wants to find the Dementors so we don't have to kill him."_ said Itona. _"So are we going to search the forest at night?"_ asked Okajima. Karma stood, Hirohito ruffed his feathers a bit but stayed perched on his arm. " _Yeah. That's exactly what we are going to do. In groups of two or three and we can just have a meeting every Saturday at same time. We can take turns to no one has take too much time off school work." "How do we know where each person has explored?"_ asked Kurashi. " _What about a map."_ suggested Maehara. Everyone seemed to be in agreement.

Once they was agreed upon that Okada said, " _What about our futures? I don't want to be set back a year in school work."_ She had twisted her hands nervously in front of her. Her owl had flown off sometime during the conversation and was waiting patiently by her side. _"I wish we could do school work from another school so we can keep up."_ said Hayami. Karma put his hand to his chin and said, "Well, i _f your not afraid of a little, we might be able to make a deal with the Minister so have your school work submitted in writing. After all, I think he owes us one."_

The next morning, Karma, Nakamura, Maehara, and Okajima all had double potions first thing in the morning. As Nakamura and Karma was walking side by side, talking they were getting a lot of strange looks. Part of it might be that they were not speaking English but they also suspected that some of it was that she was Gryffindor and he was Slytherin. _"Do you really think that we can study from two schools at the same time? I mean what about the O.W.L.S. coming up this year?"_ she asked, a little uncertainly. Karma just shrugged. " _We can do it."_

His answer was simple but somehow it gave her courage. Courage that she was going to need to face this potions teacher. At least in Kunugigaoka, there was a reason for they way that they were treated but this teacher just seemed to hate Gryffindors for no reason. Even with she had done everything right, he wasn't very happy with her. It was a lucky thing that they had studied all of this last year. Now she could concentrate on other school work.

She was exhausted by the time lunch rolled around. When she saw Nagisa resting his head against the table, she walked over to him. " _Sleeping already?"_ she asked as she tapped the back of his head. When he didn't move, the red haired boy next to him gently pushed his shoulder, "Hey mate, if we don't go soon we're going to be late for class." " _All right, I'm going."_ Nagisa said, still half asleep. "What?" he said. Nagisa looked up and said, "Sorry Weasley, I mean I going."

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Hermione wasn't talking to Ron as they went to their very first Care of Magical Creatures class. Nagisa was walking behind them when they caught up with her. It was obvious that he was still sleepy but at least he was moving. He had been sleeping all though Divination class. She thought that he must have stayed up late the night before.

"C'mon, now, get a move on!" Hagrid was standing at the door of his hut with Fang, his Boarhound, by his side. "Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me." This worried her. He really was a good guy but after the last two years, who knows what he was going to do.

Hagrid led them around the edge of the forest for about 5 minutes to an empty paddock. "Everyone gather 'round the fence here!" he said, "That's it, make sure yeh can see, now, fir' thing yeh'll want ter do is open yer books-" "How?" said Malfoy. "Eh?" asked Hagrid. "How do we open our books?"

He took out his book, that was bound the rope. Some others also took out their books, including Hermione. She had used spellotape for hers. She hadn't been able to read anything of it because she couldn't open it. She had meant to ask about it but with everything else she had been doing, she forgot.

Hagrid looked disappointed, "Hasn', hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books?" Everyone in the class shook their head. "Yeh've got ter stroke 'em. Look-" he took her book from her. It tried to bite him but her ran a forefinger down the spine and it shivered and fell open. Nagisa stepped up next to her and copied him.

"Oh, how silly we've all been." Malfoy's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "We should have stroked them! Why didn't we guess!" "I, I thought they were funny," Hagrid said to her. "Oh, tremendously funny!" sneered Malfoy. "Really witty, giving us books that try and rip our hands off!" Although she hated the way he said it, she had to agree that it would have been better to have a normal book.

"Righ' then, so, so yeh've got yer books an' ... an' ... now yeh need the Magical Creatures." Malfoy had thrown him off a bit. "Yeah. So I'll go an' get 'em. Hang on..." As he went into the forest Malfoy said, "God, this place is going to the dogs. That oaf teaching classes, my father'll have a fit when I tell him." Nagisa walked up to Hermione and said quietly, "I don't see anything wrong with this class. It is his first time teaching, right?" He was looking up at her. She nodded back at him, "Yeah, that's right." "Careful, Potter, there's a Dementor behind you-" Malfoy teased. "Oooooh!" squealed Lavender Brown annoyingly, pointing to the paddock.

Hagrid came back with about a dozen creatures with leather collars around their necks. They had horse bodies, tail and hind legs and the front legs and heads of eagles. They also had the wings of eagles. They had gleaming coats, the hair blended smoothly into the feathers. They were each a different color, from stormy gray, bronze, pinkish roan, gleaming chestnut and even inky black. He attached the chains to the fence. "Gee up, there!" he shouted. It was hard to see their beauty past how dangerous and scary they looked, causing almost everyone to step back. Nagisa leaned forward, his eyes were wide.

"Hippogrifs! Beau'iful, aren' they?" said Hagrid happily. Nagisa nodded slightly. "So, if yeh wan' ter come a bit nearer..." Nagisa stepped forward, giving courage to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They were also being very cautious. "Now, firs' thing yeh gotta know abou' Hippogriffs is, they're proud. "Easily offended, Hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do."

In her peripheral vision she could see Malfoy's group whispering, probably trying to find a way to disrupt Hagrid's class. "Yeh always wait her the Hippogriff ter make the firs' move. "It's polite see?" Hagrid continued his lesson. "Yeh walk toward him, and yeh bow, an' yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh're allowed ter touch him. If he doesn' bow, then get away from him sharpish, 'cause those talons hurt." Hermione could imagine someone dying because of one of those. Hagrid would probably never be able to teach again.

"Right - who wants ter go first?" he looked around the class for someone to volunteer. "No one?" he gave a pleading look, silently asking for someone to come up. Harry was about to but Nagisa stepped forward. "I would like to." Hargrid looked relieved. Hagrid was untied a gray one and Nagisa took a deep breath and walk up, brimming with confidence. He climbed over the fence effortlessly.

"Right then, let's see how you do with Buckbeak." As he was bringing the Hippogriff closer, Hermione noticed Malfoy had narrowed his eyes. He was defiantly plotting some way to disrupt the class.

"Easy now, er..." Hagrid didn't know his name. "I am Nagisa Shiota." Nagisa stated. "Righ' Nagisa, well, yeh've got eye contact, now try not ter blink... Hippogriffs don' trust yeh if yeh blink to much." Buckbeak was staring at him with fierce orange eyes. Strangely Nagisa didn't look intimidated but looked back without changing expression. "Tha's it, Tha's it...now, bow." Hagrid instructed.

Nagisa took a couple of steps forward and put his hands together and bowed deeply. "Ah," Hagrid was starting to sweat, getting nervous. "Right, back away, now Nagisa, easy does it." Nagisa lifted his head slightly and took a step back slowly. Suddenly it bent its front knees and bowed back. Hagrid's face brightened immediately. "Well done, Nagisa! Right, yeh can touch him! pat his beak, go on!"

Nagisa smiled and walked right up to it. Hermione could see the Hippogriff close its eyes as Nagisa patted his beak. The whole class cheered for him, save Malfoy and his crew. "Righ' then, Nagisa." said Hagrid, "I reckon his migh' let yeh ride him!" immediately Nagisa looked very worried. "Yeh climb up there, jus' behind the wing joint, an' mind yeh don' pull any of his feathers out, he won' like that..."

Nagisa immediately shook his head and put his hands in front of his face, "That's not a good idea. I don't have very much flying experience." Hagrid walked up behind him and help him up. "S' all righ'." Nagisa did climb up without any further argument but he still looked like he was nervous. "Go on, then!" yelled Hagrid, slapping Buckbeak's hindquartes.

Hermione watched at Nagisa flew with the Hippogriff around the paddock. When he landed she expected him to be really scared but he was smiling brightly. "Good work, Nagisa! called Hagrid cheerfully. "Okay, who else wants a go?" The rest of the class cheered as Hagrid helped him to the ground. Everyone was encouraged by him, and climbed into the paddock and practiced on their own Hippogriffs. Hermione was practicing on a chestnut one.

She was very happy that Hagrid's first lesson had gone so smoothly. He was so excited about this, and for all his hard work he had done he really deserved this.

Malfoy and his crew had taken over with Buckbeack. He had allowed Malfoy to pet him. "This is very easy," Malfoy said, making sure that Harry would hear him. "I knew it must have been, if that little baby could do it... I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you?" Hermione looks over at him. He sounded like he was about to do something stupid. "Are you, you great ugly brute?"

Suddenly Malfoy let out a high pitched scream, and Hagrid was wrestling Buckbeak into his collar as it tried to continue his attack. Malfoy was laying on the grass with blood all over his robes. "I'm dying! I'm dying, look at me! It's killed me!" Most of the class was panicking. Hagrid had paled, "Yer not dying'! Someone help me, gotta get him outta here."

Hermione quickly opened the gate as Hagrid carried Malfoy. There was a long gash on his arm and blood was still leaking onto the grass. The whole class followed. Pansy Parkinson was in tears, "They should sack him straight away!" she cried. "It was Malfoy's fault." Dean Thomas defended. Crabbe and Goyle gave him a threatening look.

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That night, as Karma went down to dinner, he was already tired of hearing of hearing what happened to Malfoy. It was all anyone wanted to talk about in the Slytherin dorm. He had talked to Nagisa earlier that day so he knew that most of what was being said was being made up. At the table, Malfoy was retelling the story once again.

Rolling his eyes, Karma strolled up to him. "So you are so stupid that you couldn't even do something that everyone else could do?" he asked smiling. The table went silent and stared at him. "It was that's oaf's fault." Malfoy sneered back at him. Karma snicker, "So he didn't tell you what to do? I guess that makes everyone else in the class even more impressive."

Chiba and Hayami had been moving around the edge of the forest for quiet a while. She noticed the light in the cabin. " _Something happened in his class today."_ She said simply. Chiba shrugged but didn't say anything back. As they were about to move further into the forest he stopped them and said, " _Look,"_ he pointed to the hill leading to the hut. They could vaguely make out 3 figures.

There were students that they couldn't identify moving toward them. From this distance so still they moved themselves to make sure that they weren't seen but were also in a good position to save them if they decided to test their bravery. Instead they went to the teacher's hut. Since they didn't seem to be in be in danger, so they continued to go deeper in the forest, marking the map as they went.

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So I read that in Japan, legends say that owls are suppose to bring luck and offer protection from suffering, although they are sometimes given other attributes like being a guiding bird or a bird that can predict the weather. So in the wizarding world in Japan, having an owl is probably a lot more common than in England, everyone in the former class E has one.


	7. Facing Your Fears or The Boggart in the

"English"

 _"Japanese"_

Spells

Chapter 7 - Facing Your Fears or The Boggart in the Wardrobe

Malfoy had been allowed a break from classes until Thursday, which he took full advantage of. He was more than a little frustrated with Akabane. He had hoped that they would be friends but it seemed like that wasn't going to be an option. Akabane even went out of his way to call him out. Somehow that guy was gaining popularity and it was getting annoying.

Although his arms was mostly healed but he still wrapped his arm in bandages and in a sling. Slytherins and Gryffindors had double Potions on Thursday morning. He didn't really feel like waking up early. He swaggered in halfway though class, making an entrance. "How is it, Draco? Does it hurt much?" asked Pansy Parkinson. He put on a brave face for her and said, "Yeah." When she looked away he winked at Crabbe and Goyle.

"Settle down, settle down." said Professor Snape. In the front of the class was the instructions for a Shrinking Solution. He decided to take a seat next to Potter so he could mess with him. This meant that he was going to prepare ingredients at the same table. Today was going to be a fun day.  
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Karma stopped Okuda in the hallway as the way going to class. _"Having fun yet?"_ he smirked at her. _"Yeah, although I wish we were learning something new."_ She said quietly _._ Karma laced his hands behind his head. " _I talked to the Minister. He said that he might be able to pull some strings. The only school work we could do is college level but we might be able to swing it." "Really?"_ Okuda asked with hope in her voice. He glanced down at her as they were walking through the halls, " _The only problem is that he have to meet with the Headmaster of the school we are going to go to, and this will only work for this year."_

As they were walking through the halls they saw Nakamura running up to them. Walking behind her was a boy from this school. " _Did you get everything set up?"_ she asked when she got there. " _Yup."_ he answered. "What are you guys talking about?" said the boy when he got up to them. When he say Karma he gave him a suspicious look but didn't say anything against him.

"Nothing~" Nakamura teased him. "Don't worry about it." She stuck her tongue out at him  
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Nagisa decided to sit next to Hermione during the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. She had been carrying a lot of books lately and he suspected that she was taking extra classes but he didn't know where she found the time. It wasn't really any of his business either way.

The Professor wasn't there when they arrived in class. Nagisa was a little worried about how this class was going to go. Most magic school didn't teach physical education and he assumed that this would be different. This particular teacher looked rather sickly. After he had led them through a deserted corridor and past Peeves the Poltergeist, who was stuffing gum in a key hole. The Professor dealt with that easily. "Inside, please." he said.

Inside was a staff room with a lot of old, mismatched chairs. Professor Snape, who was sitting in one of the chairs, looked around as the class came in. Professor Lupin was last and as he went to shut the door Professor Snap said, "Leave it open, Lupin. I'd rather not witness this." He walked past them to the door. He stopped in the doorway, turned and said, "Possibly no one's warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult. Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ears."

Nagisa looked at his from behind some of the other students. There was no point in calling out this student. Bullying him wouldn't help him learn. Neville was blushing at the teasing. "I was hoping that Neville would assist me with the first stage of the operation," said Professor Lupin as he raised his eyebrows, "and I am sure he will perform it well." This one sentence raised Nagisa's hopes for this teacher.

Professor Lupin waved that class closer to him as he stood next to an old wardrobe at the end of the room. It was shaking and banging., "Now, then, nothing to worry about. There's a Boggart in there." Not of the class was looking very scared. Nagisa braced himself for whatever my come out of there. He didn't really know what a Boggart was but it sounded dangerous.

"Boggarts like dark, enclosed spaces. Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards until sinks, I've even met one that had lodged itself in a grandfather clock. This one moved in yesterday afternoon, and I asked the headmaster if the staff would leave it to give my third years some practice." The Professor explained. "So, the first question we must ask ourselves it, what is a Boggart?" To no ones surprise, Hermione's hand shot up. "It's a shape-shifter, It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most."

The Professor looked pleased, "Couldn't have put it better myself." Hermione looked proud of herself. "So the Boaggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. he does not yet know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a Boaggart looks like when he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become whatever each of us most fears."

As he was speaking, a couple of thoughts crossed Nagisa's mind. He wonder what it would look like if it saw him. At first he thought it might look like Shinigami or maybe his mother during one of her dark period. It was a worrying thought, would a normal class of 13 year old's would be able to handle Shinigami, even if it was a fake version. He was also wondering if you could see what one really looked like it you used a camera with night vision.

"This means that we have a huge advantage over the Boaagrt before we begin. Have you spotted it Harry?" Professor Lupin asked. Everyone turned to Harry and waited for him at answer. Hermione was bouncing up and down, she obviously knew the answer. Nagisa thought he did as well, there were too many targets and it wouldn't be able focus on just one.

"Er, because there are so many of us, it own't know what shape it should be?" he answered uncertainly. "Precisely, it's always best to have company when you're dealing with a Boggart." said the Professor. "He becomes confused. Which should he become, a headless corpse or a flesh-eating slug?" This was a relief. Nagisa thought for a moment that it could read minds, but if it just suspected what might scare him. "I once saw a Boggart make that very mistake, tried to frighten two people at once and turned himself into half a slug. Not remotely frightening."

"The charm that repels a Boggart is simple, yet it requires force of mind. You see, the thing that really finishes a Boggart is laughter." The Professor continued explaining. "What you need to do is force it to assume a shape that you find amusing. We will practice the charm without wands first. After me, please...riddikulus!" he said with enthusiasm. Together the class said, "Riddikuls!". "Good," said Professor Lupin. "Very good. But that was the easy part, I'm afraid. You see, the word alone in not enought. And this is where you come in, Neville."

Neville looked terrified. If Professor Lupin did this right, he could really help him become a better student. "Right, Neville," the Professor said brightly, "First things first, what would you say is the thing that frightens you most in the world?" Neville tried to say something but couldn't. "I didn't catch that Neville, sorry." said the Professor. Neville looked around for help for anyone to help before whispering, "Professor Snape."

Almost everyone laughed. Nagisa smiled a bit; although it was silly he could understand. A teacher was an authority, especially when you were at a boarding school and couldn't go home.

Professor Lupin leaned back and looked thoughtful, "Professor Snape...hm...Neville, I believe you live with your grandmother?" Nellive was getting nervous and even Nagisa didn't really know where this was going. "Er, yes. But, I don't want the Boggart to turn into her either." The Professor smiled, "No, no, you misunderstand me. I wonder, could you tell us what sort of clothes your grandmother usually wears?" Nagisa's eyes widened, he finally understood what he was getting at.

Neville was a it started but he said, "Well, always the same hat. A tall one with a stuffed vulture on top. And a long dress...green, normally...and sometimes a fox-fur scarf." "And a handbag?" Professor Lupin pressed. "A big red one." Neville nodded.

"Right then," said the Professor jovially. "Can you picture those clothes very clearly, Neville? Can you see them in your mind's eye?" "Yes." answered Neville uncertainly. "When the Boggart bursts out of this wardrobe, Neville, and sees you, it wil assume the form of Professor Snape," said the Professor. "And you will raise your wand, thus," he showed the class his own wand. "And cry, _'_ Riddikulus', and concentrate hard on your grandmother's clothes. If all goes well, Professor Boggart Snape will be forced into vulture-topped hat, and that green dress, with that big red handbag." The class laughed at the thought of that.

"If Neville is successful, the Boggart is likely to shift his attention to each of us in turn. I would like all of you to take a moment now to thing of the thing that scares you most, and imagine how you might force it to look comical..." Nagisa wondered what it would be. He thought that maybe he could just think of something that scared him but not something the worst them. He decided to think about him mom when she was in one of her dark phases.

"Everyone ready?" asked the Professor. "Neville we're going to back away. Let you have a clear field, all right?" He looked frightened to be all on his own for this. "I'll call the next person forward... Everyone back, now, so Neville can get a clear shot." Everyone when t the back wall. Nagisa hide behind everyone else as best as he could.

Neville was clearly still frightened but he pushed up his sleeves and held his wand up in front of him. Behind the fear, there was a look of determination. Nagisa watched him closely. This was a person that might have the potential to be something great if he had the right motivation. "On the count of three, Neville." said Professor Lupin. He pointed his wand at the wardrobe. "One, two, three, now!"

As soon as the Professor opened the wardrobe Professor Snape stepped out and stalked up to Neville. Nagisa clenched his fist and waited for something to happen. "R- r- riddikulus!" Neville said, his voice going a bit high. There was a loud CRACK! as the fake Snape stepped back. His clothes changed right in front of them.

The class laughed once again, and the Boggart looks confused. Professor Lupin yelled, "Parvati! Forward!" The Boggard changed into a mummy. Nagisa sighed. It wasn't like they were in a line. You had to come up when the teacher called them up. Nagisa steadied himself. He hoped that he was right about the Boggart being able read your mind. He took took a deep breath just in case he was wrong.

After a few other people were called the Professor said, "Excellent Ron, you next!" Ron came forward. He was inspired by the successes of his classmates, he looked like he was more than ready for this. CRACK! A six foot tall spider was crawling toward him. "Riddikulus" he yelled. Its legs dissapeared and it rolled over toward to class. It stopped just at Harry's feet.

The Professor ran over to him. "Here!" he shouted. There was another CRACK! and the Boggart went above their heads like smoke. It because a silvery-white orb hanging above them. He said, "Riddikulus." in a really relaxed way. With another CRACK! it turned into a cockroach. "Forward, Neville, and finish him off!" said the Professor. Neville came forward, brimming with new found confidence. Snape appeared before them once again. "Riddikulus". The Boggard bust into smoke and dissipated. "Excellent!" shouted the Professor. "Excellent, Neville. Well done, everyone...let me see...five points to Gryffindor for every person to tackle the Boggart, ten for Neville because he did it twice... and five for Hermione and Harry."

"But I didn't do anything." Harry pointed out. "You and Hermione answered my questions correctly at the start of the class, Harry." He answered. "Very well, everyone, an excellent lesson. Homework, kindly read the chapter on Boggarts and summerize it for me... to be handed in on Monday."

As the class was leaving Nagisa walked slowly behind everyone else. He liked Professor Lupin's teaching style. He wanted to talk with him some more.  
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Chiba and Hayami had been walking the halls since their herbology class had ended, looking for a good place to study. _"We've passes this way before."_ Hayami pointed out. Chiba nodded. " _I don't think we're getting anywhere. Maybe we should go back to the library and study there."_ With a sigh, they both turned around to leave.

As they started walking away Chiba looked at a small door in the hallway. "By _the way,"_ he stated, " _did you see that door before."_ She shook her head and replied, " _No, I didn't notice it before. Could it be like the stairs, just moving whenever they want."_ " _We should check it out. If anyone asked then we can just say that we are new here and don't know are way around."_

Hayami slowly reached for the door and knocked slightly. They waited tensely for someone to answer, but none came. _"Should we leave."_ she asked. He put his hand on his chin thoughtfully and replied, " _We could just open the door a little to see what's inside. If it's locked, then we just leave."_

Slowly she turned the doorknob. Inside was an interesting room. There was a blackboard with several chairs with desks attached in front of it. Rows or reference books were standing on a shelf against the wall. O the other side of the wall there was a massive parkour training park. _"How does this place have room for all this?"_ Hayami asked in amazement. Chiba shrugged his shoulders, " _Magic, I guess."_


	8. Getting Back into the Flow or Flight

_Japanese_

English

Chapter 8 - Getting Back into the Flow or Flight of the Fat Lady

The next meeting Chiba and Hayami had told everyone about the strange room that they had found. They had arrange to have Megu and Kurahashi investigate.

That night as they were walking the halls, Kurahashi said, " _Why do we have a map of the forest and not of the school?"_ She sighed deeply. Megu nodded, " _Your right. I don't know why we didn't do that earlier. If we can figure out the pattern of the stairs and the locations of where all the ghosts and painting sleep, then we can make an accurate map."_ Before they could continue with that conversation a cat passed by. " _What is a cat doing here?"_ Megu whispered harshly. " _I heard it is the janitors cat."_ _"Quickly, let's hide."_ said Kurahashi.

They slipped into a different hall until Filch and Ms. Norris past and continued on their way. When they reached the right corridor, they looked around for the door but found none.

The next morning, Megu sat down at the Slytherin table next to Karma, who was eating alone. " _There was nothing there."_ Karma continued eating without looking at her. " _Are you sure that you looked in the right place?"_ As he said this, a blond boy came swaggering up to them. "Hey, Malfoy, I want to talk to you." he said, looking right at the boy. _"I'll talk to you later."_ she said as she got up to leave.

"I want to apologize for what I said the last time we spoke." Karma said smoothly. Malfoy looked a bit surprised but soon smirked and sat across from him. "There's no point in us fighting, right?" Malfoy either didn't see Karma's evil looking smirk or completely ignored it. "I agree, we should be friends." Malfoy smiled at him. Karma nodded, "You should have some lunch with me sometime." .

Across the Dining Hall, Okajima and Nakamura were sitting together, talking. " _I'm really bored._ " Nakamura yawned. " _Well, what do you want to do."_ he asked. " _Hm,"_ she put a finger to her chin and said, " _I would be fun if Team E could play games, like we did on the mountain."_ Okajima looked slightly perplexed and said, " _Team E?"_ She smiled at him and said, " _We can't keep calling ourselves the 'former Class E' so I thought that 'Team E' would be good."_

Okajima nodded before asking, " _So what where you thinking about doing for fun?"_ Nakamura hummed for a moment with a spoon in her mouth before saying, " _We could play tag. We would have to be subtle so the teacher and other students don't know what we're doing, but it might be more fun that way."_ He nodded and replied, " _We should bring that up during the next meeting."  
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Remus was walking down the hall, on his way to his office when he heard two of the transfer students talking. It was a 5th year and a third year. "- _but we still can't find that room." "Yeah, I know."_ He had very limited experience with Japanese, and therefore had no idea what they were saying. He continued walking, having no reason to bother them.

As he passed Malfoy he heard him loudly whisper, "Look at the state of his robes. He dresses like our old house elf." His friends laughed but Remus chose to just ignore him. There wasn't any point in acknowledging what he was doing. It would just give him more power.

"Excuse me, Professor." came a small voice from his side. He looked down to see one of the transfer students that he had seen earlier. He had to think for a moment about what his name was. "Hello there, Nagisa was it?" Nagisa nodded at him. He was normally a very quiet, shy student that was generally at the back of the class. "I have some questions if you have time." he asked politely. Remus smiled warmly at him and said, "Of course. Why don't you come to my office and we can talk."

Nagisa followed him back through a wooden door on the first level, into his office. He looked all around the room as Remus cleaned off the table a bit so that they could have tea. Nagisa sat at the table while he was making tea. Nagisa looked a little uncomfortable, biting his lip with his shoulders slumped a bit making him look even smaller than he is.

"What is it that you wanted to ask." said Remus, breaking the silence. "Well," Nagisa started, "one of my friends was looking for a quiet place to study and accidentally found a classroom that we hadn't seen before on the first level. We don't know whose classroom it belongs to, though." He looked like he thought he was going to get in trouble for this. Remus didn't say anything. He just listened to Nagisa carefully. "He said that there was a lot of really good reference books inside but since there was no one there at the moment so he left. When he went back later to ask to borrow them, the room wasn't there."

Remus recognized what he was talking immediately. "It sounds like you're talking about the room of requirement. It's a room that can be anything that you need it to be." Nagisa turned his head to the side with a questioning look. "How do we find it again?" he asked. "You have to picture what you need and walk past the entrance three times before it will appear to you."

Nagisa looked down in thought before asking, "What happens if someone is already in the room any someone else needs something different?" This question was a little surprising. He didn't have an answer for this. "I don't know." He answered honestly.  
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By the beginning of October, they had found the room of requirement and used it for their meetings every week. There they decided that it had been a good idea to play 'classroom warfare'. They had been randomly split up into two groups, team red and team blue. Team red consisted of Itona, Megu, Kurahashi, Karma, Chiba, Hayami, and Okajima. Team Blue had Kaede, Okuda, Nagisa, Masayoshi, Maehara, Nakamura, Terasaka, and Muramatsu. They also agreed that 'Team E' was an OK name for them to call themselves.

They had bb's and rubber knifes, hidden within other things, mailed in as well as ground up red and blue chalk, so that they could wash it off easily. They also had bb guns mailed to them in pieces so that they weren't found. The thought that no one would know what the pieces were for. They decided that they would make a point system that the would grade during their meeting each week.

Earlier that day, Karma had told Malfoy to meet him by the lake for lunch. It wasn't like he wanted to be friends with a brat like that but he did want to know if he knew anything. It was well known that the Malfoy's had followed the dark lord but it seemed unlikely that he was told anything. Although there was always a chance.

On his way, he saw Nagisa walking quietly behind Potter and his redheaded friend. He smirked at the idea that came to mind. He picked up his pace and grabbed Nagisa by the arm. " _I need you to come with me. Play along."_ He started to pull him away. "Hey! What are you doing?" yelled the red head. "Ah, don't worry, Weasley. Karma is-" Nagisa said to him. Weasley looked a little uncomfortable at being called this.

Before he could say anymore Karma decided to throw Nagisa over is shoulder. The look on their faces was hilarious. " _Karma! What are you doing?"_ Nagisa yelled at him. He jumped out of the window in that hall they were walking down so that they wouldn't be able to follow him.

 _"Karma, what's going on?"_ Nagisa asked again. Karma put him down once they were in the courtyard. " _We need to get information out of a brat."_ He explained. Nagisa looked at him skeptically, " _And you need me for that."_ Karma could help but smirk. It was going to be a fun day.

As they started at get closer to the tree the they had planned to meet at, he put his arm around Nagisa. Nagisa looked up at him looked at him curiously but he didn't say anything.

Malfoy was already sitting under the tree with his two friends, whose names Karma didn't bother to remember. "Look who I caught~." he said, holding Nagisa in front of him. When they first met, Nagisa was there but he had a feeling that Malfoy couldn't see past his own ego to remember someone who didn't directly effect him. Obviously Malfoy wouldn't give up any important information with Nagisa there, but he still needed to gain his trust. If Malfoy saw him hanging out with Nagisa later he might lose some of the trust that he is trying to build.

The three younger boys looked Nagisa like predators that had just caught a prey. Perfect. Nagisa, on the other hand, just looked bored. It would also be a good opportunity to get a point off Nagisa when he wasn't expecting it. He could do it subtly, behind his back while they were talking. He had a back up if Nagisa figured it out.

As the five of them sat down, Nagisa said, "Is your arm OK, Malfoy?" Karma couldn't help but snicker. Nagisa was being earnest but this was just going to piss Malfoy off. "What are you going off about? You think your in any position to make fun of me?" Malfoy sneered at him. Everything was going exactly as Karma thought it would. "I am sorry, I didn't mean to insult you." "Yeah," Karma added lazily. "You were out of classes for a while." Malfoy's face turned a bit red.

Karma had planned to let them tease Nagisa a bit, he could take it, and then make it very clear that they were close friends and see what Malfoy would do. The Akabane family was famous enough that his friendship would mean something and it would be dangerous, on a social standing, to be an enemy. He was sure that Malfoy would try to suck up to both of them.

At the same time, _Remus_ was walking out of the castle. Just outside, there was an odd site. Two of the transfer students were standing behind trees with something in their hands, watching three younger Slytherin students, and one older Slytherin that he recognized as Karma Akabane, sitting with Nagisa. The three Slytherins looked like they were trying to tease him but Nagisa had a completely neutral face. The older boy was smiling but it looked like he was just watching.

The two other students were both Hufflepuff but he didn't remember their names. He did remember that they always seemed to stick together and they didn't say very much. They were far enough away from they other group that it was impossible for them to overheard. The boy noticed him almost instantly and whispered something to the girl before stepping in front of her.

"Hello, Professor." he said and bowed slightly to him. As he was doing this, the girl disappeared. "Hello, there. I'm sorry but I can't quite remember your name." Remus said apologetically. The boy frowned a little but because his eyes were covered, his face was hard to read. "My name is Ryunosuke Chiba." he answered. "Ah, hello Ryonosuke. May I ask what you were doing over here?" Remus asked.

For a moment, Ryonosuke turned toward they group then back at him. It was like he was trying to decide how to answer. "I was playing a game with Karma and Hayami. It is similar to tag."

Over by the other group, Nagisa suddenly said, "Ah!" Malfoy noticed a red flower appear on his shoulder. Karma smirked and said, " _Gotcha"_ Nagisa's face turned from shocked to slightly annoyed. He didn't know what he said, he got the gist of it.

The next day, as Nagisa was walking though the hall Potter and Weasely ran up to him. "Are you OK?" asked Potter in a hurried voice. Nagisa gave them a questioning look, "Yes, I'm fine. Um, why?" Potter and Weasely looked at each other and Weasely said, "That guy from Slytherin picked you up and jumped through the window!"

Nagisa couldn't find the words to describe his embarrassment. Karma had explained what he was doing, kinda, but Nagisa just thought he wanted to have some fun at the expense of others. With a sigh he said, "Karma didn't do anything, he just thought it would be fun to scare people like that. He's not a bad person but he likes to tease people." The other two boys gave him a skeptical look.  
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Quidditch practice was starting. Masayoshi was kinda excited about this, even though he wasn't on the Quidditch team. He had always loved the sport but didn't ever play. Sugino had been the one that liked to play but he also really liked it. One day he and Nagisa was sitting near the field and watched the Gryffindor's first practice.

" _Are you going to Hogsmeade?"_ he asked. Nagisa smiled, " _Yes, my mother almost didn't sign the permission form but in the end I got it."_ Masayoshi nodded and replied, " _It's doubtful that Black would be hiding there but keep an eye out for any signs of him."_ Nagisa nodded and went back to the common room before the practice was over.

In the common room Weaseley and Granger were doing their homework. He took this opportunity to get some of his own work done. Soon after Potter came back from practice, and Weasely and Granger began to get into a fight over their pets. Her cat tried to eat his rat.

At the end of transfiguration class Professor McGonagall called out to them, "As you're all in my House, you should hand Hogsmeade permission forms to me before Halloween. No form, no visiting the village, so don't forget?" Longbottom raised his hand and said, "Please, Professor, I, I think I've lost-" "Your grandmother sent yours to me directly, Longbottom." she interrupted him. "She seemed to think it was safer. Well, that's all, you may leave."

As he was leaving, Nagisa could hear Granger and Weasley urging Potter to ask to Professor for something. Besides them, he was one of the last ones out. When he stepped out into the hallway, he sensed something out of the corner of his eye. He stepped out of the way as something hit the ground next to him. He looked up and saw Okajima moving quickly away. A small red streak marked the floor where he had stood just moments before.  
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During Halloween, Itona, Terasaka, and Muramatsu were eating together the Hufflepuff table. The people around them had gotten used to them hanging out, despite that fact that Itona was in second year while they were in sixth and that they were all in different houses. For they most part others just left them alone. The feast was good, and they were having fun and chatting.

On the day of Halloween, the third year students were taking their first trip to Hogsmeade. While this was happening, Harry had just left the the common room. He was a little depressed that he couldn't go as well. He ran into Filch and was sent back to the common room.

But instead of going back to the common room he decided to go to the Owlery. On his was there, he ran into Professor Lupin. While they were talking in Professor Lupin's office, Snape had come in and given Lupin a suspicious looking potion. Even after he finished it, the goblet was still steaming. Lupin didn't tell him what the potion was but assured him that it was nothing bad.

When Ron and Hermione had returned to the castle they gave him the souvenirs from Hogsmeade, mostly sweets. He told them about the potion that Snape gave Lupin. In the end they decided that, since they didn't really know anything, that they would let that wait until another time. When the feast began they all filled their plates and ate candies and sweets. The pleasant dinner had been ruined by Malfoy's nastiness.

Later that night, a crowed was gathered around the entrance to the Gryffindor tower. " _What the hell is going on?"_ said an older student, in a foreign language. He looked over to see a burly 6th year grimacing at the crowd. He was the biggest of the transfer students and he looked really tough. Ron, who was standing next to Harry said, "Why isn't anyone going in?"

Just then, Percy came pushing through the crowd saying, "Let me though, please. What's the holdup here? You can't all have forgotten the password, excuse me, I'm Head boy-" There was a silence that came with a feeling of dread. Then Percy cried sharply, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick."

Harry couldn't see what was going on; even standing on his tiptoes didn't do him very much good. As Percy had said this Many people told turn his direction. As he fell flat on his feet again, Ginny arrived. "What's going on?" she asked. At that moment Dumbledore had arrived. Several of the Gryffindors pressed together to let him through. That allowed Harry, Ron, and Hermione to get a little closer.

The sight was shocking. The Fat Lady's portrait had been ruined, slashed and torn. Some pieces had been ripped away completely. Hermione grabbed Harry's arm in shock. "Oh, my-" " _How?" We were watching."_ Came someone from right behind him.

A feeling of deja vu washed over him as he realized that Nagisa had been right next to him without him noticing. This time he was looking forward with his clinched fist close to his chest. He looked very upset, or maybe disappointed was the better word. His face was dark and his eyes had a weird sort of unnatural look as he gazed at where the painting once hung. It was like he was a completely different person.

"Nagisa" he caught his attention. Nagisa looked up at him, almost surprised. McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape were all running toward Dumbledore. "We need to find her. Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady." Ordered Dumbledore. While this was happening, the blonde older transfer student came over and whispered something in Nagisa'a ear.

Peeves the Poltergeist was floating over the crowd, looking happy as can be. "You'll be lucky!" he cackled at them. Dumbledore looked at him calmly and asked, "What do you mean, Peeves?" Peeves wouldn't taunt Dumbledore, so instead in frowned slightly and spoke in a different voice; like that of a jovial conman, "Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seem. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running though the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful." Then he added, "Poor thing."

Dumbledore looked solem and thoughtful, "Did she say who did it?" he asked quietly. "Oh yes, Professorhead." Peeves said, regaining some of his earlier silliness. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see." He flipped over in the air and grinned at Dumbledore. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."

Fear gripped Harry's heart for a moment. " _Calm down, Nagisa."_ came someone beside him. " _There's nothing we can do at this moment. We have to talk with everyone else and come up with a plan."_


	9. Getting Serious or Grim Defeat

"English"

 _"Japanese"_

" **Parseltongue"**

Chapter 9 - Getting Serious or Grim Defeat

Dumbledore sent all of the Gryffindor to the Great Hall, followed shortly by the rest of the students, who had no idea what was going on. "The teacher and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle." He addressed the students as the other teachers left room. While he was talking, the members of Team E met over in a corner. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here." He continued. "I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to the immediately." He then looked at Percy, "Send word with one of the ghosts."

Kurahashi looked at Kaede and asked, " _What's going on?"_ Kaede shook her head. " _The Painting-"_ Maehara started to explain but stopped when Dumbledore started speaking again. "Oh, yes you'll be need..." With a wave of his wand, the four long tables lined themselves against the walls and hundreds of soft purple sleeping bags appeared on the floor. "Sleep well." he said as he exited the room.

As soon he he was gone the Gryffindor students started telling the others about what had happened. The entire Great Hall was filled with noise.

" _As I was saying,"_ Maehara continued, " _according to the Peeves ghost, or poltergeist or whatever, Black was mad when the painting wouldn't let him in so he tried to tear her up." "Why didn't he see him? We had been playing close attention."_ said Kaede. She was looking down at her hands in disappointment. " _No, we were playing."_ said Karma. He was siting with his back against a table and his hands behind his head.

They turned to him with expressions ranging from shocked to enraged. " _Are you all going to look me in the eyes and tell me that you were being serious."_ He smirked at them. " _We've been goofing off and anyone who says otherwise is lying to himself. It's hard to take it seriously without Koro Sensei or Karasuma Sensei to push us."_ Nagisa looked up at them and said, " _It's easy to forget that we aren't dealing with Koro Sensei anymore. This is a person that will probably kill us if he finds us."_

They took a moment to think about that. " _I thought that Hogwarts had safety precautions."_ Chiba pointed out. Karma shrugged his shoulders and Megu said, " _According to the textbooks it does. There are charms that protect the school from entering through magic, including things like Apparating."_ Nakamura pointed a finger at her, " _What about the Dementors? I thought that they were guarding every entrance." Black must have slipped past them"_ Offered Nagisa. Okajima rubbed the back of his head and said, " _This guy must be crazy good."_

 _"I actually found out something interesting."_ Karma said. The rest of the team turned to him again. " _Black was friends with Lupin in school." "The teacher?"_ asked Muramatsu. Karma nodded, " _Yeah, and even after school they kept in contact."_ Itona looked at him curiously, " _Are you implying that Lupin let him in?"_ Karma shrugged his shoulders. Megu had a hand to her chin, " _It's worth an investigation."_ Karma turned to Nagisa and said, " _You're closest to him. Use whatever you have to to get information."_ Nagisa looked uncomfortable but nodded anyway. " _While you do that, there are some other things that I will investigate."_

 _"Should we go out and help look for the Fat Lady?"_ asked Hayami. Masayoshi shook his head, " _No, it looks like their keeping a close eye on everyone. Besides, the painting report to the teachers so if we're caught we'll get in a like of trouble."_ Nakamura nodded, " _Remember the lessons that Bitch Sensei taught us? It would be really bad if someone figured out that we were assassins." "Keep you second blade hidden."_ added Kaede.

"The lights are going out now! I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!" Percy ordered. The members of the team split up and went their separate ways, to their own houses. After he said that, the candles all seemed to go out at once, leaving only the light from the stars of the enchanted ceiling and the shimmer of the ghosts that would pass by them.

Nagisa moved close enough to Potter and his friends to listen for anything that might happen, hoping that he would find out if Potter actually knew anything. Several of the other Gryffindor Team E members also moved as close as they could without drawing suspicion. He pretended to be asleep, listen and waiting for something to happen.

Hayami was facing Chiba across the hall. It was a little embarassing to be sleeping so close to him, but it was also comforting in a way. She had closed her eyes and listened to people whispering around them. Every now and then a prefect was come over to someone and tell them to be quiet.

After a while she hear Chiba whisper, " _Hayami, are you awake?"_ She looked at him and said, " _Yeah, I'm still up." "That room is great but..."_ He sighed. She knew what he meant. There wasn't anyway that they could practice shooting how they wanted; there was only enough room to practice at close range. " _Karma said that we shouldn't shoot in the forest because of the centaur but I wonder if practice from the roof."_ she suggested. He bit his lip and said, " _Only if we are still playing our game."_

They both went silent for a while again until she said, " _Do you really think that Lupin Sensei helped Black?"_ He shrugged his shoulders. " _It's possible. Karma is hiding something but I guess that he'll tell us later. He put Nagisa in a hard position but if anyone can find out it's him."_ He didn't need to tell her the reason why. Nagisa gave Lupin Sensei almost the same look and he did Koro Sensei. But Nagisa could do it, they both had faith in him.

The Hufflepuff Head Girl came over to them and said, "You two need to be quiet now." "I'm sorry." Chiba said to her. " _Goodnight."_ He said to Hayami. " _Goodnight."_ she returned.

She turned over to see that the Headmaster had entered and began talking with the Potions teacher and the Gryffindor Head Boy. She couldn't hear what they were saying but she could see Nagisa was close enough that he should be able to hear. She would have to ask him later.  
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The next day, everyone seemed to be talking about what had happened. Much to the Gryffindor's dismay, the Fat Lady had been been replaced by Sir Cadogan and his small gray pony.

He spent a lot of time thinking up impossibly difficult password that changed a couple of times a day. He also challenged people to duels. One day Masayoshi, being frustrated with him accepted his challenge. Unfortunately they couldn't duel because one of them was in a painting and the other was not.

Muramatsu was walking down the hall, feeling happy about his new discovery, when he saw Okuda walking alone with her arms full of books. He walked up behind her and said, " _Check this out."_ She turned around quickly, looking slightly surprised. " _What are you talking about Muramatsu-kun?"_

She followed him to a painting of fruit. Me smiled brightly at her and tickled the bottom of a pear. It swung outward slightly. He led her inside to an enormous kitchen with low counters. Elves were working all around the kitchen.

" _You like Karma right?"_ He asked mischievously. She blushed a little and he continued, " _I bet that he would appreciate something sweet. These guys would probably help."_

At the same time, Harry was having a problem. Everyone was watching him like a hawk. He had just been called into Professor McGonagall's office. She had told him that he would have to be watched while practicing for the upcoming Quidditch match.

When he finally got away from everyone for a moment he heard something that sounded a little off. **"It is cold outside." "OK, but just for a little while. I have classes."**

Around the corner he saw Nagisa was looking down at the windowsill. " **You have to be quiet and still during class, no one can know you're there."** Harry walked up to him as the little grass snake was looking up at Nagisa.

When he approached they both looked up at him. " **There are many rumors about you, Harry Potter." "Oh, I see."** Harry resonded. Nagisa looked shocked. "You speak parseltongue?" "Um," Harry said, "you do too, right?" Nagisa nodded shortly. The snape slithered under his shirt and Nagisa said, "This guy is cold so I told him that he could warm up with me for a while." They walked together to their next class.

The weather had been getting worse lately but that didn't stop him and his team from practicing. Suddenly, during their final training session before the match against Slytherin, Wood, the captain of the team, told them that Slytherin was trying to throw them off. Now they were up against Hufflepuff and they're new Seeker, Cedric Diggory from year 5 because Malfoy was still faking his injury.

Nagisa walked into his Defense Against the Dark Arts class trying to think of how to get the information out of the teacher. He was one of the first people there because he was planning on sitting in the back. Snape was in the front of the class.

It was a little unexpected but he thought that maybe Lupin wasn't there yet and Snape was just there to mess with someone. Granger asked about it when she arrived and he told them that Lupin was sick.

Snape started talking about the basics of Dark Arts and why they needed to defend against it. He was just a few minutes in when Potter came running in.

"Sorry I'm late, Professor Lupin. I-" he started as he came in. "This lesson began ten minutes ago, Potter, so I think we'll make it ten points from Gryffindor. Sit down." Potter gave him a stubborn look and said, "Where's Professor Lupin?" "He says he is feeling too ill to teach today," Snape looked oddly pleased with this, "I believe I told you to sit down?" Potter still didn't move. "What's wrong with him?"

Snape looked weirdly excited."Nothing life-threatening. Five more points from Gryffindor, and if I have to ask you to sit down again, it will be fifty."  
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At the same time, Karma was finally certain that he was right. He had to skip history to test of his theory but he was sure that it was going to be worth it. Besides, Bins wasn't going to notice whether he was there or not. He walked down the hall on the first floor.

He knocked on the wooden door to Lupin's office. "I'm sorry, I feeling quite unwell. Unless it's an emergency please come back later." Karma smirked and leaned on the door. In a hushed voice he said, "I know something important about you." He waited for Lupin to react.

Karma could hear some shuffling around before the door opened lightly. As he did Karma pushed the door open and walked in. "Excuse me!" the Professor exclaimed. Karma walked to the table and slouched in one of the chairs. Lupin looked tired and completely worn out.

"Are you a werewolf?" Karma asked point blank. The Professor looked taken aback but Karma pushed on. "I suspected that you were for a while now. So here's the thing, if you tell me you are then I'll know I'm right. If you tell me you're not then I'll have to dig deeper."

Lupin looked defeated as he sat across from him. "You're right, I'm a werewolf. What now? What are you planning on doing with that information?" Karma didn't really care about that but it was a good way to get the upper hand. He leaned back and looked toward the ceiling, "I have a serious question and I really wanted you to be honest. I don't really think you're going to lie to me but I wanted you to know that I do have ways of getting any information that I need." He said, burying the threat. Lupin looked at him curiously.

Karma smiled darkly and looked him in the eyes. "Why didn't you report Black?" Lupin narrowed his eyes, "I didn't know that Black was here until everyone else did." "I mean before that. You kept in contact after school right, are you telling you had no idea?" Lupin scaled at him. "I think that you should leave now." Karma smirked and continued, "He killed Pettigrew and the Potters, right? I thought you were all friends. Does that mean that your friendship with Black was more important that they were."

Lupin slammed his hands on the table, "Shut your mouth. You know nothing about that." His face was red with anger. Karma raised his hands in mock defeat. "OK, you're right. I wasn't there so I don't know." Lupin seemed to relax a little, although he was still very anger he didn't look like he was going to attack him, so Karma continued, "Nagisa is one of my close friends and he looks up to you. I didn't want to trust him to someone that might betray him." Lupin seemed to relax considerably at this. Only part of what he said was true. "Anyway," Karma continued, "you seem tired so I'll leave for now, I'll talk to you later."

As he let himself out of the room he smirked. Lupin had told him what he needed to know. Now he had to figure out why Lupin was defending Black though. He clearly was upset about the death of his other friends but he either didn't know why Black did it or there was another reason that was harder to find. " _I wonder where Okuda is..."_ he wondered out loud as he walked through the halls.  
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That night Nagisa, Masayoshi, and Maehara had all been paroling the forest all night during the heavy rainfall. When they returned through the window Nagisa headed down to the common room before changing like the other two. He was still troubled and needed some time for himself.

He hadn't been there for long before he had heard someone coming down the stairs. He didn't really have time to hide before a sleep Harry Potter entered the room. Potter saw him and looked a shock.

"Were you out?" Potter asked. Nagisa decided to tell im the trust. "Yeah, I had something to do." Potter looked like he wanted to ask why but didn't. "Um, Potter, good luck today." said Nagisa as he started to walk away.

"Nagisa, wait a moment will you." Potter called to him. Nagisa turned to him. "Why do you call me by my last name?" Potter asked him. Nagisa looked at him for a moment before saying, "Sorry, where I am from it is polite to call someone by their last name until you get to know them well or until they say you can call them by their given name." "Well, you can call me Harry." Potter offered. Nagisa smiled at him and said, "OK, I will." before walking up the stairs.

Later on the day, almost all of the school went out to the Quidditch field for the match. There was only a few exceptions. About half of Team E was either in the forest or around the field. Chiba and Hayami were stationed on the roof of the castle with guns, ready for anything that might come up. Kaede and Nagisa were sitting close together near the middle of the stands, close to the most empty part of the stands.

They sat really close together, to try to stave off the cold. Had it not been raining so heavily Nagisa would probably have fallen asleep on her shoulder.

About halfway through the match the captain of the Gryffindors called a timeout. After a brief meeting they when back to the sky. While they were playing, Nagisa felt like something was wrong. He turned to see a large black dog on the top of the stands. There was something ominous about it, the lightning made it seem worse.

He stood and started moving closer but as he did it slunk behind the stands to get down. Kaede moved behind him but he turned to her and said, " _I'm going after it. Tell others about this."_

He jumped over the side and used the cloth to keep himself from plummeting to the ground. He saw the wolf starting to sprint away. As he ran after it, he started feeling weak and cold but he fought through it and continued after it.

He followed the dog to a tree that the student had called the 'Whomping Willow'. The dog moved into a hole that was under the roots of the tree. Nagisa, ignoring the branches, continued following the dog.

Unfortunately, he didn't see the branch that hit him in the side of the head. Everything was suddenly blurry and the world started going dark. The last thing that he saw was a large branch coming at his face.  
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Sirius didn't know why this kid was chasing him but he had finally escaped. Just before he had gotten back into the Shrieking Shack he saw something that made him stop. The Kid that had been chasing him had been hit with a branch. If he didn't do anything his head would be crushed.

After turning back into his human form, he ran up and grabbed the kid by his cloak and pulled him into the path leading into the shack. The kid was completely out of it. He decided that he was going to make sure that he was OK before returning him to the castle. At the very least he would stop the bleeding.

He didn't have the right medical supplies to really help him but he took some of the tattered curtains, tore then into usable strips and started wrapping them around the kid's head. He didn't expect his eyes to start to flutter open.

He looked confused for a moment and grabbed onto his sleeve. " _What's going on?"_ he said in some other language. "It's OK, calm down for a second." He tried to calm him down. He had hoped that he wouldn't be seen. He had thought that this was a good place to hide but now he was going to have to find somewhere else.

Suddenly, kid's eyes became very focused. "You hit your head, I'm going to wrap it up and sent you on your way." he tried to say in a nonthreatening way.  
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Back on the Quidditch field there was a lot of commotion. A large number of Dementors had come onto the field. Kurahashi was leaning over Masayoshi, who had passed out after coming to close the Dementors.

During this time, several members of Team E had come back to meet up with everyone else. Kaede ran up to Karma and shouted, " _There was a suspicious dog in the stands so Nagisa ran after it but he didn't come back_ yet." She had already told most of the others. _"Which direction did he go?"_ Karma asked. Kaede pointed in the direction of Hogsemeade.

Karma turned to the team and said, " _Megu, Maehara, Terasaka, and Muramatsu come with me. Everyone else make sure that people are safe here."_ He then turned to Nakamura and said, " _Please find Chiba and Hayami and tell them to come and find us."_

The five of them started to run toward the direction of the village.  
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I was going to try and give everyone equal time, as much as I can, but this turned into a Nagisa heavy episode. Sorry about the cliffhanger but I have to keep you on your feet somehow, right? In all fairness, he didn't get much sleep and the Dementors were also slowing him down.


	10. A Friend in need (part 1) or Marauder's

I really appreciate everyone who reads and reviews. As far as pairings go, I don't normally write about romance so I probably won't do much in that regard. The most you can expect is a passing mention about a couple. Also, because the there is a lot going on with Team E, I had to split it up into 2 chapters.

"English"

 _"Japanese"_

 **"Parseltongue"**

Chapter 10 - A Friend in Need or The Marauder's Map Part 1

Nagisa woke up in someone's arms, his head was throbbing. This person was wrapping something around his head. His body was cold but the side of his head felt like it was on fire. He couldn't quiet remember why he was here for a moment.

He slowly opened his eyes to see a face that he didn't recognize in front of him. He grabbed onto the first thing that he could get a hold of. Everything was still a bit fuzzy. " _What's going on?"_ The man in front of him said, "It's OK, calm down for a second."

It took him a moment to realize what was said. He tried to focus on what was happening. It was then that he realized that the man before him was the same person that he had been searching for.

"You hit your head," he explained. "I going to wrap it up and send you on your way." His body moved before he had time to think about it. He stood and backed away quickly, settling in a lowered, almost crouching position, in case he needed to escape quickly. They lower position also helped him balance himself. He raised his arms in a position to block any blows directed at his vital organs. His head was still pounding, and if they got into a fight, Nagisa was sure that he would lose. He reached for his wand only to realize that it wasn't there.

"Hey," said Black, holding up his hands like he was trying to placate him. "You're still hurt, if you keep moving around like that your going to hurt yourself further."

Nagisa stopped and looked at him for a moment. It wasn't his words that stopped him but his face. He had been expecting a killer, someone who cared about nothing but power, but that wasn't what he saw. This man didn't have a dark aura around him. Black took this opportunity to step forward. Nagisa could help but remembered speaking to Shinigami and noticing nothing then either. But this was different, he was sure of it.

He had to think quickly. There were only two way of doing this as far as he could see. He could either try to reason with Black and hope that his team would find him while he distracted him. Or he could run away, hope that Black followed him, and get close enough to the Dementors so they could caught him. Going by everything that he had heard about Black so far he was afraid that he Black wouldn't listen to him. So the second option what was he was going to do; as long as he could avoid the tree this time, he would be fine.

He stood up a little straighter, bracing himself against the wall, and said, "Why did you help me? Doesn't it mean that you'll be in more danger now?" He was just waiting from his chance to push off the wall and run. Black's aura didn't change as he gave Nagisa a hollow, humorless smile. He looked down and retorted, "Why did you chase me, a big bad _killer?"_ he emphasized the last word. He waited for Nagisa to say something but Nagisa stayed silent. "See," he said slyly, "we both are doing things that don't make any sense."

Nagisa bit his lip, this wasn't working at all. Black was staying calm, if he didn't move Nagisa wouldn't get a chance to leave. Black was blocking the entrance. If he died here, keeping his reason for being at this school would be pointless, besides he was already caught. As long as he didn't reveal the identities of the of Team E members, it might work out for him.

"I am an assassin and I've come here to kill you." Nagisa said in an emotionless tone. Black looked at him curiously for a moment before he started to laugh. Nagisa pushed off the wall and headed further into the building. He hoped that he could hide long enough to get the upper hand and lay a trap or escape.

There was a lot of broken and torn up furniture. The walls and the ceiling had a lot of cracks and crevices, some big enough to hide in. Climbing up, to the at high as he would go, he hid among the rafters. This gave him the opportunity to moving around the room without being seen. This would be perfect as long as he didn't fall. He waited for Black to enter the room.

Black came in and looked all around the room for any sign of him. When he didn't see any sign of Nagisa, he started to moved the furniture around to find him. "I don't know if you think you're being serious, but I don't think that you know what you signed yourself up for." As he said this he quickly moved a chair. Seeing that Nagisa wasn't under it, he started moving around the room a little more. "Do you know what it really means to kill someone?" Black asked.

Nagisa smiled at him from above. 'To kill' These were words that gave him strength. He carefully moved away and said, "That is what an assassin does," before moving quickly. Black looked at where he was as he continued. "I have taken a life before, you are not my first." He moved again. "However, if you find me before I can make my move I will not be yours either."

Black stopped and looked around the room sadly. Nagisa assumed his aura would change into something dangerous when he started looking for him but it didn't. He didn't look like a killer. This situation wasn't right. He thought about it for a moment, moving around so he wouldn't be found, and wondered if there was a reason he killed those people besides for fun or to gain power.

"Why did you kill those people?" Nagisa asked out right, moving again. Black sighed, he seem more tired than before. "You may not believe me, but I'll tell you the truth." This was a surprising turn of events. The rest of the evening Nagisa spent listening to Black's story while moving around. No matter how weird things seemed right now, he wasn't going to let himself be caught off guard. Nothing this evening went as planned.  
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At the same time, the five Team E members reached the village, and they split up and searched, followed shortly by Chiba and Hayami. They searched the the empty buildings and any abandoned structures. It wasn't long before the rest of the team met up with them.

While looking for him, Karma couldn't help but remember what had happened when those high schoolers kidnapped two members of their groups. At the time he had been fully prepared to fight them but Koro Sensei got to them first. He knew that he was- no everyone was much stronger now, but so was their opponent. The thought that this man might have already killed Nagisa crossed his mind. He didn't realize until then that he was shaking. He grabbed his wrist to try to still himself.

Suddenly a hand appeared on his shoulder. He whipped around to find Chiba looking him in the eye. " _We have to go back."_ Karma ground his teeth, getting ready to tell him exactly what he thought about that but was stopped with Nakamura said, " _Listen Karma, the Dementors patrol the village at night."_

Karma nearly growled at them and took off in the direction of the castle. The worst part was that they were right, they really were helpless in this situation. Maybe something from Koro Sensei's guide book might help him now. He wasn't the only one on the team who had no idea what they should do.  
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Karmasuma was at his at his desk doing paperwork when an owl fly into his window. He let in land in front of him and took the letter off its leg. The envelope read, Tadaomi Karamsuma, 3rd floor, room 316, Ministry of Magic, Ikebukuro Japan. It contained two pieces of parchment. He reached into his desk and took out a treat for the owl. He had learned long ago to keep some in his desk for cases like this. Karmasuma opened the letter and scanned through it. This is what it said,

 _Mr. Karmasuma,_

 _While doing some paperwork I came across something slightly disturbing. Many of the files pertaining to the students that transferred from your school are completely sealed. I am of course aware of the predicament of your previous Headmaster, however I have no way of contacting him. I have no intention of prying into the details, as most of them are still completely sealed because of the incident but I would appreciate anything you could tell me regarding the students, including their grades and any special skills that they have. Enclosed is a list of students that transferred, listed by year and last name._

 _I have very little context for what happened, I am only aware of fact that a teacher within the school was reveled to be a dark wizard._ _You truly have my condolences for the situation that was forced upon you. I sincerely hope that we can work something out for the information. I would hate to put you in an uncomfortable situation, please contact me at your earliest convenience._

 _Sincerely, Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, first class, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot._

Karmasuma refolded the letter and set aside with the list of students. None of them had contacted him since the beginning of the school year. He assumed that it meant that they were doing well but that doesn't mean that he wasn't worried about them. He briefly wondered whether or not they would even come to him if they were in trouble.

He had rested his chin on his hands while thinking about this. He barely noticed when Irina bounced into the room. _"What's the matter?"_ her pouting face appeared in front of his. He looked up at her calmly and replied, " _The Headmaster of Hogwarts is trying to looking into the Class E's past. I fear that if I try and keep to much information from him, he will try to look into things on his own."_

He didn't notice the concerned look on her face for a moment. " _Have they been discovered?_ _Do they need our help? We could smuggle somethings in there if they need it."_ she said quickly. As annoyed as he was that she was overacting, in was nice that they cared so much for them, even after they were no longer in her care. He sighed, " _No, they don't need us now. They're fine on their own. It's just standard paperwork, nothing has gone wrong."_

He picked up a piece of paper from his desk to send to his higher ups, requesting permission to talk to him. He suspected he would be given a script of what to say and forbidden to say anything else, as well as some forged documents.  
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Lee Jordan had noticed something off about the Rio after what happened at the Quidditch match. She was gloomy and kept away from others since. He could understand being disappointed about losing the match but she never seemed to be that into Quidditch.

On the day after the match, he saw her talking in rapid Japanese with Karma, that guy from Slytherin. He looked very angry at something. " _Are you sure you're alright?"_ she asked. " _Yeah, I'm OK."_ He said as he walked away, waving his hand in an uninterested way. She looked out the window, there was so much sadness is her eyes.

"Hey," he said, walking up to her, "what are you doing?" Rio looking at him. Her eyes were red like she had been crying. "Hey Lee," she said "What's going on?" It was obvious that she was trying to keep her voice from shaking. "Um, nothing. What does whatcha she wa die joe badasu mean?" (1) he said, trying to think of something to talk about. Rio smiled at him and replied, "He was upset so I asked if he was OK and he said he was."

Lee said, "Are you OK? You've been really upset for a while." She shook her head and continued to smile. "Of course I am. I was just mad that Gryffindor lost." She stuck her tongue out at him. He narrowed her eyes and gave her a serious look, "You can't fool me with that." Her smile faded a bit. "OK, something happened yesterday to someone close to us."

It was clear that it was personal and she didn't want to tell him exactly what it was. He was going to respect her. "Alright." A tense silence followed. He decided to break the silence, "Fred and George are visiting Harry right now, but after we are planning something really nasty for Snape. Want to join?" he smirked, hoping it would make her feel better. She shook her head and said, "No thanks, I don't really want to."

It was weird. Ever since they had met, she didn't once turn down a chance to pull a prank or cause trouble. Thinking about it now, she was a little bit off after Sirius Black attacked the Fat Lady but it wasn't like this. Whatever happened must be very serious.  
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Sirius was looking for that kid. He saw him coming into the room and from time to time he could hear him moving around but could never pinpoint exactly where. This kid was odd, to say the least. He claimed that he was an assassin and normally he wouldn't believe that but this kid had a very dangerous look. He didn't look scared at all.

He couldn't believe how this kid was moving just after he was hurt. It was like being knocked out didn't even faze him. He panicked when he woke up and didn't realize where he was, but then he took control of the situation easily. He mentioned killing someone before and it was possible that he could.

The kid asked him why he killed. He thought about it for a minute before deciding that there was no point in not telling him. While he was talking he could hear the kid moving around the somewhere in the ceiling. After a while the noise from him stopped. He continued the story but while he did he wondered it the kid was still there. He didn't see him leave but he couldn't see or hear him at all.

About half way through he felt like he was just talking to himself. When he was finished, he sat down heavily in one of the chairs that he had closed his eyes. "Let's assume that we are both telling true," came a voice from the ceiling. He looked at the direction of the voice but creaking meant that he was moving around again. "I have an offer, if your willing to listen." the kid continued from somewhere else.

Sirius inclined his head to indicate he was listening. "What do you propose?" he asked. "If you stay here for a moment, I will go and contact people that I'm working with. I'd feel really bad about killing someone that doesn't deserve it." Sirius thought about it for a moment, "How do I know that you're not going to reveal my location?" This was followed by silence.

"OK," he said reluctantly, "would it satisfy you if I stay here and sent a message out." "How are you going to do that?" Sirius asked. There was a movement again, and the voice moved, "I have a plan for that." he said mysteriously. There was some rustling, like he was moving around some more. Sirius shrugged in the direction that he thought he was in and said, "Fine."

Before long he hear hissing. It wasn't surprising, there were snakes in this building.  
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Karma was sitting in the common room, biting his thumb. Nakamura was just as upset as he was but she was still trying to cheer him up. He didn't need her sympathy right now, he needed to know that Nagisa was safe. The thought of Nagisa in trouble was bothering him more than anything. There seemed like there was nothing he could do.

A hissing broke him from his thoughts. He looked down to see a snake with a piece of paper wrapped around his middle with a bit of ripped cloth. The snake allowed himself to get close to Karma. Karma took the note, and opened it. It read,

 _'I found Black, he said that he is innocent. He claims that a man named Peter Pettigrew framed him. I don't know who that is. I am in a place called the Shrieking Shack with him right now. As long as I'm here, he claimed that he won't run away. I don't plan on just believing his words but if there is some truth to it, it is worth looking into.'_

Karma sighed. Nagisa was acting recklessly alone again. " _Oi, Mr. Snake,"_ He addressed the creature before him. He wasn't sure that the snake could really understand him but Nagisa could talk to them so, even if didn't understand, it would tell him that he got the message. " _Tell Nagisa we're coming for him."_

Karma got up to find other to give the message to them. They would sneak out tonight and corner Black. The message mentioned 'Peter Pettigrew'. This was one of the people that Black had killed. Karma wondered if that was why he killed him.

The whole situation was weird. He trusted Nagisa's judgement; he may look innocent and naive but he was actually very sharp. He didn't really understand how but Nagisa was always able to understand people by looking at them.

Walking though the halls, Karma saw Chiba and Hayami walking together with a couple of other Hufflepuffs. He walked in front of them, " _Nagisa contacted me."_ They looked at him in shock. "What's going on?" asked one of the people that they were walking with. Karma ignored him, " _He is with the target now, but he wants us to do some investigation for him. Once everyone knows the situation-"_ "Hey!" said another of the other Hufflepuff, "Don't just ignore us."

Chiba turned to her and said, "Sorry, this is really important." "Alright," said the first Hufflepuff, "we'll see you guys later." The others waved goodbye and left. " _When everyone knows the situation then a few of us will go the the Shrieking Shack and confront him."_ They nodded and took off in separate directions. When everyone know the situation they were going to meet in the Room of Requirement and come up with a plan.

He ran to the staircase and hopped on as it stared to move. He used his forward momentum to jump onto the next level, scaring a group of first years. He ignored them and continued up. On the staircase he found Okuda and Muramatsu talking.

That was something that he had forgotten about. For a while they had been talking, and he didn't know why. It wasn't like he didn't like this happening but it was strange. He had never seen them talking before. " _Hey, Nagisa contacted me. Mauramatsu, tell Terasaka and Itona. Okuda, go to the room."_ He said as he passed them. He continued up the stairs too find everyone that he could.

Once everyone had been told, the meeting in the room began. There was an air of hope among them. It was obvious that some of them had been crying. Kaede sat alone in the corner. Her cheeks were still wet with tears.

" _What's going on?" "Nagisa contacted you?" "Where is he?" "Is he OK?"_ Came a chorus of questions. Karma stood in front of everyone else. " _Shut up."_ he said calmly. Everyone quieted down. " _Nagisa tied a note to a snake. It said that he talked to Black and said that Black claims to have been framed. He also said that Black would stay where he was as long as Nagisa stays with him. They are in the Shrieking Shack."_

 _"So Nagisa was tricked."_ accused Teresaka. Karma glared at him and retorted, " _I trust in Nagisa's judgement. Maybe he's wrong but at least it's worth an investigation." "Yeah, I agree. Nagisa's usually right about people."_ Nakamura added. Karma nodded, _"Peter Pettigrew is the person that Nagisa said was supposed to have framed Black. According to what I know, Black killed him years ago but the only thing that was found was a single finger."_

 _"That name is familiar,"_ said Nakamura thoughtfully. Everyone turned to her while she thought. " _Did you hear about Black's past as well?"_ Okuda asked. Nakamura shook her head, " _No I thought I saw it on the Marauder's Map. Fred and George were pointing out their brothers and sister to me one night and the name Peter Pettigrew was in the Gryffindor tower with them." "Could it be his son?"_ asked Kaede, wiping her eyes. " _I guess that's were we should start."_ said Maehara.

 _"So here's what we're going to do,"_ Karmasaid, crossing his arms. " _Chiba, I want you outside the Shack; pick a spot where we have a good view of the main area, we'll lead him there. Kurahashi, Masayoshi, Okajima, and I will go through the tunnel that leads into the the shack. Hayami will walk behind us, keeping out of sight. Cover us with one of the guns. Everyone else, look for everything you can regarding Pettigrew. Right now, we don't know how much Black knows about us so it might be better it he doesn't see all of us at once."_

He turned to Okuda and said, " _Do you have a potion that will make him sleep or numb or something like that."_ She nodded. _"Actually,"_ Itona looked at the wall, " _we thought it would be a good idea to make sleeping darts with a sleeping potion. So, as long as you hit him, he'll be out of it for a couple of hours."_ Okuda nodded again. "Perfect." Karma said quietly, " _Let's get going then."_

Remus was finally back, and it looked like Harry had recovered as well. The students had been complaining about Snape giving them homework about werewolves. He listened to all their complains and fixed the problem. He wasn't surprised that Snape would do that. After all, he still had a grudge against him, and why shouldn't he. It may have been a lot time ago but they really were cruel to him.

Looking around the class He noticed that Nagisa was not there. He wondered if he was sick.

After the bell rang, he called Harry back because he wanted to speak with him. "I heard about the match," he said as he started putting book back into his briefcase, "and I'm sorry about your broom stick. Is there any chance of fixing it?" "No," said Harry, "The tree smashed it to bits."

They spent the next few minutes talking about Dementors. Harry pleaded for him to teach him how to defend himself. He had never planned to teach Harry the Patronus Charm, thinking that he would learn it later through someone else, but he needed it now. "Well...all right. I'll try and help. But it'll have to wait until next term, I'm afraid. I have a lot to do before the holidays. I chose a very inconvenient time to fall ill."

As he turned to leave, he thought of something else. "Before you leave, Harry, I wanted to ask." Harry turned back to him. "You and Nagisa are close, right?" Harry shook his head, "Not really. He eats lunch with me sometimes and we cross in the halls now and then but I don't really know him well. Why?" Remus shook his head. "Nothing, I was just wondering where he was. Never mind, I'm sure it's fine."

Harry looked like he was just noticing that Nagisa wasn't there. Nagisa was quiet enough that nobody ever seemed to notice him unless he wanted them to. He wondered why Akabane, a Slytherin two years ahead of him, was trying to protect him. What did he get out of it?  
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(1) Karma used the phrase 'Yeah, I'm OK.' which is 'Un, watashi wa daijobudesu' in Japanese (according to Google translate).


	11. Chapter 10 continued

Since Team E doesn't trust Sirius enough to use their real names, they're going to use that the names that they gave each other during the school year around him. Thank you again for everyone that read, favorite, followed and/or reviewed this. I can't tell you how happy that makes be feel.

"English"

 _"Japanese"_

 **"Parseltongue"**

Chapter 10 (part 2) - A Friend in Need or The Marauder's Map

Sirius was still sitting on an old, worn out chair near the entrance of the room. That kid was still in the ceiling. He didn't know exactly where he was but it was clear that he saw still up there.

After a while he came down but stayed at the far end of the room. The look on his face saw scary. Sirius had seen fear, living in Azkaban had taught him to recognize it in even the strongest, but he saw none of of this in the kid's eyes. His eyes were cold and unfeeling. The intensity of that look was terrifying.

"So," said Sirius, hoping that breaking the silence would loosen some of the tension in the air. "you know my name, what's yours?" The kid look taken aback for a moment. "Um, my name is," a blush dusted his cheeks, "Its...Gender." he said with a bit of hesitation. "Gender?" he asked. The kid nodded. It was an odd name. He figured that it had to be some sort of code name given to him but he wondered why they would give him a name like that.

The innocent look on his face was quickly replaced with the look of a killer once again. Breaking the silence worked once, if only for a moment, but he didn't think that it would work again. It felt like if he made a wrong move, Gender wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

After a while, a snake slithered its way into the shack and rested on a splintered pile of wood that was once a chair so that it was eye level with Gender. He seemed to split his attention between Sirius and the snake. **"Nagisa,"** it hissed at him, " **I gave the note to Karma and he took off immediately." "That you,"** Gender surprised Sirius by speaking Parseltongue. " **I appreciate your help."** The snake came closer to Gender and slid onto his shoulders, **"Its too cold, I'm going inside."** The snake started to slithering into his shirt, Gender looked a little shocked and hissed loudly, " **Wait! Don't you see what ki** nd of situation that **I'm in right now? It's really dangerous." "I don't care, it's cold."** came s hiss from his shirt.

Gender sighed in acceptance, but then he set his sights on Sirius again. Sirius now understood how he was conveying information to his allies. He wondered if they could also speak Parseltongue, or if he sent some sort of note with the snake somehow.  
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Karma was leading the way though the dark tunnel that Nakamura pointed out. Even though they had only been traveling for a few minutes, it felt far too long. Masayoshi was close behind him. He had wanted to head the group, reasoning that he was the fastest on the team, but Karma ignored him.

Terasaka, Muramastu, and Maehara had all insisted on coming as well. They said that they weren't good at investigating. Karma should have know this but somehow he didn't think of it. He had been focused on just getting there. The feeling of helplessness he felt was almost overwhelming. He had never felt like this before. Then again, they had never been in such a desperate situation before. It was like the fact that no one was there to help them was finally sinking in. It was frustrating and terrifying.

Despite the darkness of the tunnel no one used their wands for light. Even an amateur would know not to do something like that. The element of surprise was one of the most valuable tools in an assassins arsenal.

The eight of them traveled in silence at a quick, hard pace. They all wanted to get to him as quickly as they could but it was getting difficult to stay at the same pace. _"We're coming Nagisa."_ He heard Kurashi whisper.  
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Dumbledore was in his office, pacing the floor in worry. This year had gone terribly wrong. He had just received a letter from Professor Karasuma, who offered to meet with him in the middle of November. Something was odd about the whole situation. He didn't understand why he didn't just send over with an owl. There was something more going on he just didn't know what it was. He was making a plan to find out more, it was the only way to protect all of his students. A little knowledge it a dangerous thing.

A light knock on the door informed him that Professor Flitwick had arrived, He had been expecting this. Professor Flitwick had requested to speak with him yesterday but with all the chaos that was happening he didn't get a chance. "Come in." he announced.

The door opened to reveal the Professor walking solemnly forward. He held a wand that Dumbledore didn't recognize in front of him. "Would you like a lemon drop?" he offered him. Professor Flitwick shook his head. "Professor Dumbledore," he held out the wand for Dumbeldore to take. It looked like a fairly new wand, probably belongs to a student or a teacher that had to replace their wand fairly recently. "While gathering the pieces of Mr. Potter's broom, I found this as well."

He looked away uncomfortably, like there was something else that he wanted to say. "I appears that one of the students may have tried to test their bravery." said Dumbledore jovially. Professor Flitwick shook his head. "There was a fair amount of fresh blood around the root of the tree as well. Aside from Potter there were no students" Dumbledore nodded gravely, now understanding the troubling atmosphere. "Please check to see if any of our students are not accounted for."  
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Masayoshi rushed into the room just after Karma to see him and Nagisa high fiving. He couldn't see Chiba but he knew that he could see them. Hayami was hiding in the door way, waiting for the opportunity to get to a better vantage point undetected. They were some of the most carefree people in dangerous situations like this. Behind them he could see the man from the pictures. He was standing at the back of the room. A snake was right behind him. Masayoshi didn't like snakes, couldn't trust them, but it was probably a snake that Nagisa was controlling.

Nagisa looked impossible tired. " _Are you OK, Nagisa?"_ asked Okajima. " _Yes, End of Perversion,"_ Nagisa said pointedly. " _I'm just tired."_ He understood, Nagisa wanted them to use their nicknames. " _Keeping up that level of intensity was difficult. I wanted to make sure that he knew that we were serious but I didn't want to do anything if he really is innocent."_ The team seemed to agree with this.

Masayoshi caught the slight nod that Karma gave Kurahashi who went over to Nagisa and set him on the floor. While everyone else stood around them, she started to unwrap his head and examine him. " _Did Black do this to you?_ " Karma, as well as several others, looked very tense at this. Nagisa shook his head, " _No, I wasn't paying attention and the tree hit me. Actually Black saved my life."_

Karma stepped forward and address Black. "Hello Black, my name is Halfway Chuuibyou." Black raised an eyebrow but nodded and said, "Hello." "This is Justice, End of Perversion, Womanizing Bastard, Pseudo Takaoda, Loofah, and Flouncy Stag beetle and of course you know Gender." he pointed to each of them in turn, ending with Kurahashi and Nagisa.

The look on Black's face was confused and slightly amused. It was annoying, it felt like they were being made fun of, but he had to admit that to a normal person these names would sound kinda funny.

"As you know, I'm Sirius Black." said Black from the end of the room. He was standing there, looking at them. Karma took a step forward. "Gender tells us that you want to prove your innocence." "That's right." replied Black. Karma smirked at him and said, "OK, we'll listen to what you have to say and if we think that there is a chance that you are innocent, we'll try and help you any way we can. But," he held up a finger to emphasize his point, "if we don't believe you, we won't hesitate to end you."

Masayoshi was watching Black's face the whole time, trying to decipher what he was thinking. His facial expression made it clear that he believed what Karma was saying. "One more thing," added Karma, "I want you to know that we aren't the only assassins here." He took another set forward. "Some of the other members of our team are watching you as we speak. Others are at school, so if we don't return within a certain by tonight, they will know where to look."

It looked like Karma was trying to manipulate him physically, controlling where we stood in the room. This was probably so that both Chiba and Hayami would get a good view of him.

He had to consciously tell himself not to look when he heard something moving behind him. While he knew that it was just Hayami taking advantage of Karma talking to get into a better position, his first instinct was to to look at her. Even though he was able to avoid looking at her, Terasaka was not.

Even thought the actual was quick, Black noticed. He was thankful that Hayami had already hidden herself. Black knew that she was there, he didn't know what she looked like of anything about her. If they could keep his attention, then she could move around all she needed.

"Gender had mentioned that he had killed before." Black pointed out. Karma smiled devilishly and Masayoshi had to admire his ability to push people. He had a feeling that Karma was going to push Black as far as he could. "What do you think being an assassin means?" Karma responded sarcastically. Black scolded at them. In return some of their own teammates glared at him as well, Masayoshi included. They were afraid that if he gets to mad, Black might strike out at them.

Karma relaxed a little, "Tell me about Peter Pettigrew, and the Potters. I heard that they were your friends, so why did you kill them?" Black's face fell. He looked like he had just aged several years. "Is it because you were forced?"

After a long pause, he said, "That's not what happened..." Team E listened patiently to his story. When he was finished Maehara said, "OK, so Pettigrew is an animagus too right?" "Yes, um, I'm sorry what was your name again?" He smiled wryly at him and said, "I'm often called Womanizing Bastard." "OK," Black looked like he was going to laugh at that, "that's right, he's a rat animagus." Maehara nodded at them and Okajima understood what he was getting at. "So the 'Peter Pettigrew' on the map was probably him!" he exclaimed.

Black looked like he had just been told good news. "Do you have the Marauder's Map?" he asked. Masayoshi shook his head, "No, but we have access to it." Nagisa stepped forward. "What's the Marauder's Map?" Masayoshi forget that he didn't know about the map. "It's a really cool map that shows the whole school and everyone in it. It also shows you where they are and what their doing?" Karma sighed, "I'm just frustrated that it took us with long to find you." he motioned toward Black.

"Are we going to tell Fudge the truth?" Nagisa asked, sitting down next to Karma. Karma shook his head, "Without the proof, we are just a bunch of kids that got tricked by a killer. We need to find Pettigrew and get him to talk." "That would be a good idea until you realize that we are searching for a particular rat in a castle." Terasak said Sarcastically. Kurahashi walked over and sat next to Black, "Maybe we should ask Straight Lace what he would do."

Although most of the team seemed to be in agreement to this but Nagisa shook his head. "This is our job. We can't go crying to him every time we run into a problem." The air in the room once again became very heavy. "Who is Straight Lace?" Black asked. Kurahashi smiled fondly, "He is the person that trained us as assassins." Karma stood, "Yeah, I guess that he is right. We can do this on our own."

As he was getting ready to leave, Nagisa stopped him and said, "Before I go back I need to get cleaned up. I don't want to get sent into the infirmary because people will start asking questions. Besides, I lost my wand sometime yesterday and I want to look for it before I go back." Kurahashi looked at him and responded, "I'll bring some fresh water and stuff to get cleaned up with for the both of you. The rest of us should get back as fast as we can." "Thank you." said Black solemnly. Karma shrugged his shoulders and walked out of the room saying, "I don't like when the innocent are unfairly punished."  
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While the recuse team was gone, the investigation team was talking about where to start. " _We can't just go around asking anyone about Pettigrew."_ said Nakamura. Kaede looked at her curiously, " _What do you mean?"_ " _Because it would be weird if we too much about this situation."_ said Megu. _"Not only are we foreigners but we are also students."_

" _Um,"_ Okuda spoke up, " _Lupin Sensei seems really open. If we are really careful, maybe we could talk to him." "I'll do it."_ said Kaede. Nakamura looked at her and warned, _"Black might_ _be a criminal but he was also close friends with Black. If you insult him, Lupin Sensei might clam up."_ Kaede nodded.

She walked out of the room to find Black while the rest of the team discussed how to continue investigating. She offered to do this because that she believed that she could read people well enough to say the right things. But another reason that she wanted to do this was because this was a man that Nagisa looked up to. She understood why he looked up to Koro Sensei and she wondered if this man was really that similar or if it was just the teaching position that he held.

As she stood outside the office door, she took a deep breath and readied herself. She had to hide her true feelings because no one knew that Nagisa was in trouble. If he really was OK, and completely unharmed, telling anyone about what had happened would ruin their jobs.

When she was ready she knocked lightly on the door, but there was no response. With a small frown appearing on her face she knocked again, this time louder. Again she was met with silence.

With a feeling of disappointment she started back to the room when she happened to see two students from Gryffindor. Putting on her cutest smile, she pranced up to them, waving happily. "Hey~" she sang to them. The both turned around. "Hello there," "Hi." they said. "My name is Kaede." she stuck out her hand.

They looked at each other for a moment before the taller one took her hand, "I'm Tom," When he let go the other took her hand and shook it as well, "My name is Henry. Pleasure meeting you." "You too." said said, winking at them cutely. Tom blushed slightly at this. "I was really curious about something." "What's the matter?" asked Henry. She looked up at them through her eye lashes, "I have a friend that's in Gryffindor that mentioned a person named Peter Pettigrew who he wanted me to talk to but I couldn't find him."

They shook their heads and said, "No, I've never heard of him." said Henry. Tom put a hand behind his head and said, "If you want, I- er we could look for him, if you want." She shook her head and said, "That's OK, my friend will probably just introduce my to him later. Bye." She waved as she skipped away.

When she got far enough away, she dropped the act. This felt completely pointless, she had gotten nowhere.  
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Nagisa returned to school the following Tuesday. No one disagreed with the current plan. " _It makes sense that the other students didn't know anything about him_." said Kaede. " _You didn't ask too many people, did you_?" said Hayami. Kaede shook her head and replied, " _No, just a couple of boys from Gryffindor. I was going to ask Lupin Sensie but he wasn't in his office." "It's a good thing you didn't, now we don't have to go through any of the teachers."_ said Masayoshi.

" _I'm going to talk to the Headmaster about my wand, I couldn't find it anywhere."_ said Nagisa. " _I'll say I dropped it in the village so that there is no proof either way."_ With the team in agreement, they all went their own ways.

Nagisa was on his way to Headmaster's office when he happened to caught the Headmaster speaking in the hall with Professor Bins. Smiling as his luck, he made his way over to them.

He stood off to the side patiently until they had finished their conversation and Professor Dumbledore had started back toward his office. Nagisa quickly walk up to him and gently touched his arm, "Professor, if you have a moment." Professor Dumbledore looked at him with his sparkling eyes, "Why, hello Nagisa. What would you like to talk about."

"I seemed to have dropped my wand and I can't do my school work without it." Nagisa said with as much innocence as he could muster. Dumbledore gave him a very stern look and said, "Come to my office please, I would like to have a word with you." It was an uncomfortable walk to his office. Professor Dumbledore didn't say anything to indicate that he was in trouble but that was the feeling that Nagisa felt from him.

When they entered the office, Professor Dumbledore sat at his desk and took out a bowl full of candy to offer it to Nagisa. The first thing that he noticed was his wand sitting in the middle of the desk. ' _Looks like I'm going to have to come up with another excuse.'_ he thought to himself. "Would you like a Lemon Drop?" he asked Nagisa. He nodded and took the candy.

It was tart but good. Professor Dumbledore hovered his right hand over the wand, "Is this your wand?" he asked. Nagisa nodded, "Yes, I dropped it." "I see," responded Professor Dumbledore, stroking his beard. "Where did you say you lose it?" he pressed. Nagisa closed his eyes for a moment so that he could come up with a good excuse.

"I'm sorry, I know that the Whomping Willow is off limits but I was very curious and I thought that I could be fast enough to avoid it." Nagisa said looking down at his feet. "I must have dropped it then." Detention was a small price to pay for the secret to be kept. Professor Dumbledore nodded understandingly. "I know that it might be fun to test you bravery but that was dangerous, I must ask that you don't go near that again." "Yes," Nagisa answered. "I understand."

"That being said," Professor Dumbledore's voice became light again, "may I ask were you got this wand." Nagisa looked up and said, "Um, there is a place to buy magical things in Ikebukuro." "I ask because the wood that is used is fairly rare." said Professor Dumbledore offhandedly. "It's elder wood, if I'm not mistaken." Nagisa nodded.

What he said was an understatement. It took his several days to get his wand because none of the other wands seemed to fit with him. His was the only one that the wandmaker had make with that type of wood. He had also found that it was really hard to work with. That was one of the reasons that he ended up in Class E in the first place.

"May I ask what your core is?" continued Professor Dumbledore. Nagisa shifted slightly, "It is horned serpent's horn." "Interesting." Professor Dumbledore replied. Nagisa was unsure of where this was going. He was certain that he was going to get in trouble but instead Professor Dumbledore insisted on talking about his wand.

He handed back the wand. "There you are. You may leave, just promise me you'll stay away from the Whomping Willow." Nagisa smiled at him and promised to stay away from it. He did feel a little guilty about breaking his promise so soon after making it, especially since he had been let off easily, but Black needed supplies.  
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Dumbledore had finally received a letter from Mr. Karasuma to meet at a cafe in the London in the middle of November. When he arrived at the cafe, Mr. Karasuma was waiting patiently for him with a fairly think file in front of him. When he saw him, Mr. Karasuma stood and extended a hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir." he greeted him with a very stern, business like voice.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in a mysterious way as he shook his hand, "The pleasure is all mine." They both sat down and Mr. Karasuma opened the file, "Please understand that I am in no position to reveal everything but I will tell you the gist of it." "I am grateful for your cooperation." he responded.

With a sigh, Mr. Karamsuma started, "At the start of last year, a dark wizard came to us and requested to teach a class. There was a threat of death if we refused. Because of the way the school was set up, the students with the lowest grades are set aside as an example, he was allowed to teach that class with me as a supervisor. He had agreed to the conditions that he was not allowed to harm any of the students. I was assigned to the classroom as the physical educational teacher, but I was actually there to assure the protection of the students." he explained.

Professor Dumbledore looked troubled by this. "Why wasn't this made public, if he was such a dangerous person?" he asked. Mr. Karasuma answered, "Because we were afraid for the students safety." Professor Dumbledore couldn't help but think that there was so much more to this but he didn't have any proof. The look of Mr. Karasuma told him that he wasn't going to get them information about what happened.

"Are those the grade of the students?" Professor Dumbledore inquired. Mr. Karasuma nodded and handed him the files. "I apologize, the dark wizard didn't take grades like the other teachers." "No," said Professor Dumbledore, "it's quite alright."

While he was reading through the files, Mr. Karasuma spoke up again. "I'm going to tell you something however, if it is revealed that you found out from me I will be punished severely." Professor Dumbledore looked up at him curiously. Mr. Kurasuma was looking away, "I will only tell you because I became very attached to those kids over the last year." "I understand," said Professor Dumbledore. "please tell me everything you can. I assure you that no one will know that the knowledge came from you."

It took him a few more seconds to get ready, "I was hired to protect the students, but my first goal was to kill him. Since I didn't get any chance away from the students I tried to kill him in front of them." Professor Dumbledore gave him a dark look but Mr. Karasuma continued, "I was also there to teach the students to defend themselves, with both spells and physically."

Mr. Kurasuma narrowed his eyes in thought before continuing, "I wasn't the only person that tried to kill him. Since none of them had any success, and he didn't give his name, the students named him Korosensei. It is a combination of the words korosenai, which means unkillable and sensei, which means Professor. Despise being a dark wizard, the students became increasingly attached to him. They were all surrounding him, and even involved in killing him. It left many of them very distraught."

Professor Dumbledore took a moment to digest all of this before responding. "How many of the students in Hogwarts were involved with this?" he asked. "All of them." said Mr. Karasuma immediately. "There were others that were involved as well, but about half of the students involved went to Hogwarts."

The two of them finished their coffee and said their goodbyes. Long after Professor Dumbledore left, Karasuma stayed at the cafe and ordered another cup of coffee. Before long Irina came into the cafe and sat in the seat that Professor Dumbledore had just recently vacated.

"Why did you tell him all of that?" said questioned. He sat his coffee down and said, "Because he looked like the type of person that wouldn't be satisfied with that little bit of information. What I told him wouldn't put them in trouble, but it might explain away if they do something weird.  
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Christmas eve fell on the weekend and so Team E took the trip to Hogsmeade together. The fresh snow crunched under their feet as Karma, Nakamura, Nagisa, Okada, Chiba and Hayami walked through the village together. They had spend some time in the candy shop where they had seen Potter sneaking up through the cellar.

 _"Hey,"_ said Nakamura, getting everyone's attention. " _I was talking with the Weasley's and they said that since Potter needs to be able to get around, their going to give him the Marauder's map. "That's OK,"_ Karma shrugged, " _we already have all that information on our map._

After this the team broke up, Chiba and Hayami headed to the Three Broomsticks pub. While Hayami found them a seat, Chiba when to the bar. She had just settled down when he hurried back with two tankards of Butterbeer, spilling a little. " _The Minister is here with some of the Professors."_ he said quickly. She looked around for him but didn't see him. " _We should get closer and listen. They might say something useful to us."_

He nodded, handed her one of the drinks and they both made their way across the room. As they got closer to the close to the table, they could see Potter and his friends trying to hide behind a Christmas tree that was in front of the table that they were sitting in. She was sure that it wasn't like that when they entered the pub. Ignoring them, they separated and got as close as they could to the table without being found out.

Hayami listened carefully with her back away from them. "You don't know what you're talking about, Hagrid.' she heard Fudge say. It was unfortunate that they missed the first part of the conversation. "Nobody but trained Hit Wizards from the Magical Law Enforcement Squad would have stood a chance against Black once he was cornered." she couldn't help but smile in pride that he had trusted them with such an important task after speaking about how dangerous he was; it was almost like an inside joke.

"I was Junior Minister in the Department of Magical Catastrophes at the time, and I was one of the first on the scene after Black murdered all those people. I- I will never forget it. I still dream about it sometimes." While she was listening, Megu sat down next to her. " _What's going on? You look upset."_ Hayami shook her head slightly and motioned to the table behind them. She nodded back and sat quietly. "-of the street, so deep it had cracked the sewer below. Bodies everywhere. Muggles screaming. And Black standing there laughing, with what was left of Pettigrew in front of him...A heap of bloodstained robes and a few, a few fragments-"

He stopped and the girls heard some people blowing their noses. "Well, there you have it, Rosmerta," Fudge concluded. The girls got up to leave, they had heard everything that they needed. Hayami looked over to Chiba and left. Seeing her leave, he got up and followed.

Outside the pub, the three of them met over in near an alley. " _Everyone believes that Pettigrew is dead, so if we prove that he isn't wouldn't Black be cleared of at least some of the charges."_ Chiba pointed out. " _If we could get him to talk, then the rest of the world might discover that Black it actually innocent."_ Hayami added. Megu looked down thoughtfully, " _I bet that Karma could get him to talk."  
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I looked up the different kinds of wand wood and this one seemed to fit Nagisa the best. Elder wood, a light colored wood, was one of the rarest kinds of wood for wands. It is also one of the most difficult to master. They also have a reputation for being unlucky. They wands only chose people who are superior to those around them. The owners are always marked for a 'special destiny'. Also I chose a horned serpent horn core because it is very powerful, can warn its owner of danger, and (more importantly) sensitive to Parseltongue.


	12. Christmas Eve Surprise or the Firebolt

I know I say this just about every chapter, but thank you to everyone who reads my story and a special thanks to those that follow and/or review. Also little thing, but I'm changing the line break. This is another really long chapter because important things are happening to both Harry and Team E so I'm separating it into different parts again.

"English"

 _"Japanese"_

Chapter 11 - Christmas eve Surprise or The Firebolt, part 1

The Minister had demanded a meeting with the 'leader' of Team E so Karma volunteered. For this team he would be considered the leader, although they never really declared a leader. He still had a couple of hours to wait until dinner after the meeting was finished so he headed back to the castle. When he got back to the Slyherin common room be found something that he could have fun with.

He didn't really care about social status but the others in his house did. The people that stayed during the holidays were usually older students that stayed to make connections with each other. They would suck up to each other in order to make connections for the future. He supposed that it was a bit of privilege on his part, to be part of a pure-blood family but high enough in society to not worry about having to suck up to others. He knew that no matter what he did, he would probably always have respect from others, just from his family's name.

There was a group of four young men, standing around talking. He thought that he might be able to get some useful information. He hadn't bothered to remember any of their names, but he was certain that they knew his name.

Casually, he walked up to them and said, "Man, I hate rats." They turned to him. One of the guys blushed slightly but played it off. Karma suspected that he had a rat as a pet. "I mean pests not pets." He looked a bit relieved. "Yeah," said another. "Lazy house elves, they can't keep the castle in order. Dumbledore is too senile to keep them in order." Karma just shrugged his shoulders but didn't say anything about it.

He actually really liked house elves. When he was young, his family's house elf would take care of him when his parents went on vacation or traveled for business. She was old then and he suspected that she only had a few good years left in her. It was a little sad that she was going to be alone this year. He had bought her a Christmas present, just a simple box of candy, and wrote her a letter for Christmas that he sent with his owl a few days before.

As for Dumbledore, he didn't have any feelings about him either way. He wasn't very popular among the Slytherins but the others houses seemed really admire him. To him, this was just another authority figure.

"Have you seen any pests around here lately?" Karma asked in the most uninterested voice he could. "Oh yeah," said another of them, "all over." The others agreed. It was obvious that they were lying. "Where?" he pressed. "Um," They looked at each other trying to come up with the right answer, "Near the 3rd floor girl's bathroom." "Thanks," said Karma, walking away, "I'll stay away from there." "Yeah no problem _."_

He walked past the dorms until he came across Itona's room. With nothing better to do, he walked in without knocking. Itona was sitting in the middle of the floor surrounded by what looked like a computer that had been completely taken apart. His face was screwed up in frustration. " _What's the matter?"_ Karma asked from the door way. Itona didn't look up from his place, " _I've been trying to make the computer work in the school. If I can, we can have Ritsu's help, but nothing is working." "Well,"_ said Karma, " _keep it up."_

He walked away, as Itona got back to work. Karma wondered what Nagisa was doing. As he walked into the hall he put his hands in his pockets and decided to look for someone to talk to. Before long someone came up behind him.

He turned to see Chiba with a scroll in his hands. " _What's going on?"_ Karma asked. Chiba frowned, " _Did you read any of the recent history of Hogwarts?"_ Karma shook his head. He had read a little but not enough to be worth mentioning. " _Over the past couple of years, they have had to replace three different Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers. Three years ago one of them retired after teaching for a long time, but two years ago there was one who disappeared without a trace. The last one was a famous wizard, Lockhart." "I remember him."_ interjected Karma. Chiba nodded, " _He turned up with a strange medical condition similar to Alzheimers at the end of the year."_

The two of them stepped out into the snowy courtyard for a little privacy, " _That sounds like a memory curse gone wrong."_ said Karma. Chiba nodded, " _He's still in the hospital. I think it may be_ _permanent_." " _Do you know who did it_?" Karma asked. Chiba opened the scroll and looked through it, " _No, there was no evidence of anyone cursing him. Potter was the one that found him after the opening of Chamber of Secrets."_

Karma thought about it for a moment. " _Do you think that Dumbledore knows about all of these passage ways or any of the other dangerous things around here?"_ Chiba stopped and frowned at this. " _I don't think that he is a very good Headmaster."_ Karma stopped with him and waited for him to continue. " _Professor Dumbledore is very intelligent but he doesn't seem to care about all these dangerous things that could hurt the students. Like the passage that leads to the Whomping Willow, it should be closed down but we go through there almost everyday. Or letting the Dementors come to school. Why couldn't they do something with Potter, like make it public that he's not going to be a Hogwarts this year because of the danger. If you could have a private tutor or something." "That's unfair to him."_ Karma pointed out. Chiba sighed and looked away, " _Yeah, but this way endangers everyone, including the people that have nothing to do with him_."  
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All of Team E spend dinner discretely saving food to take to Black. Nakamura was sitting fairly close to Potter and his friends, watching them. She didn't know why but he looked like he had just been told something devastating.

He left somewhat early and, although she did have any reason to tail him, she did anyway. Given what was said at the pub, she thought he might do something stupid. She didn't really know him well enough to know if he would spend any time planning or if he'd do anything at all. If he did spend any time planning then they could intervene.

He avoided the crowd that gathered at the Weasley's little stunt with some dung-bombs. She set the food she had gathered aside to free her hands. She followed him to the boys dorm, where he climbed him his bed and pulled the curtain around him. She heard that him pull something out of a drawer but since she couldn't see, she decided to leave.

Today was a exciting, she as going to meet Black for the first time. They decided that they were going to introduce him to everyone on the team. Karma said that it would be best to imply that they have more members.

As she walked to the door, she saw something interesting. By the bag she had set down, there was a scraggly looking rat with a missing toe. "Hi there," she said, bending down and holding out her hand, "Are you someone's pet?"  
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Sirius was looking out though the boarded up windows of the shack, the clouds were blocking the moonlight making in almost impossible to see anything. He had just realized that it was Christmas eve. He wondered how long had it been since he had a pleasant Christmas. Even though nothing special was happening today, it was a good day. He wrapped his arms tighter around himself. The kids had brought him extra water and blankets. It was amazing how open and kind these kids where, especially if they really were hired to kill him.

The creaking of the floorboard meant that someone was here. Sirius prepared himself, it was probably one of the kids but he couldn't be too careful.

Though the doorway came Halfway Chuuibyou with a folded blanket on an arm, followed shortly by a tall boy and girl that he didn't know. Each of them were carrying a small bag. The moment that they entered, the room filled with the smell of good food. Halfway Chuuibyou handed his bag to the boy and unfolded the blanket.

As he was laying the blanket on the floor he said, "This is Adult Game Protagonist and Tsudere Sniper." he introduced them. Once again he wondered who was coming up with these names. He also wondered how Adult Game Protagonist could see with his hair in his eyes. Tsundere Sniper looked mildly upset.

Once the blanket was laid out, the three of them started setting food from the bag out like a feast. Sirius hadn't realized just how hungry he was. He had never been so happy to see food from the Hogwarts feast. "It's a little cold." said Tsundere Sniper. "That's OK, it's just fine." Sirius could almost cry at how happy he was.

When everything was laid out there were more people coming in. Pseudo Takaodo, a young white haired boy, Loofa and a small girl with twin braids. Again, they were all carrying bags that he assumed were filled with food. Pseudo Takaodo put a hand on top of the young boy's head, who looked up at him. "This is Rolling Riser." "And this," said Loofa, pointing at the girl, "is Poison Glasses."

As soon as they were introduced they started setting up the food that they brought. His curiosity got the better of him. "I have to ask," said Sirius, "who came up with these names?" The kids looked at each other for a moment before Adult Game Protagonist spoke up, "We did." "We came up with names for each other when we started training." Tsundere Sniper finished for him.

"Now I have a question." said Halfway Chuuibyou, leaning close to Poison Glasses making her blush at the closeness. "What's going on with you and Loofah?" Loofah smiled at him, putting a hand under his chin and answered, "It's a secret. You're going have to wait and find out."

While they were talking Justice came in and set his bag down. After they got set up Gender and a girl about the same size as him came in. Then a girl with a low ponytail came in last. The girl in the ponytail stood in front on the group and introduced herself as Stern Lecture and the small girl as Forever Zero. Followed shortly by Flouncy Stag Beetle, Womanizing Bastard, and End of Perversion.

When everyone was introduced the group set up a dinner. Most of them just picked at the food and talked. It was a weird situation, these were suppose to be assassins but they seemed like carefree kids. Forever Zero looked over at Gender and asked, "Where is Yochi?" Gender smiled, "He is sleeping in my shirt. He's such a baby."

"Has anyone seen Gyaru English?" asked Stern Lecture. It seemed like no one had. While there was a murmur about this, a blond girl showed up that he assumed was Gyaru English. Instead of a bag in her hands, she had a something small that Sirius couldn't quite see. " _Look at this!"_ she said something and a bunch of the kids went over to see what it was.

Halfway Chuuiybou some something to her before he walked over to Sirius and knelt in front of him. "Listen," he said in a placating manner, "we think we might have found Pettigrew." Hearing this made Sirius' blood boil. If he had a chance to get his hands on him... Halfway Chuuibyou put his hand on Sirius' head, "You need to calm down. You are innocent, right? If you actually do anything to him, you won't be anymore. Besides, we don't know if it's really him." He smiled mischievously, "Trust us, we can get him to talk."

He watched as Gyaru English held a familiar rat in front of her, using her fingers to hold her arms in place. "Hello Peter," said Halfway Chuuibyou, with something behind his back, "my name is Halfway Chuuibyou but you can call me Karma, because that's what you're going to be facing." There was a groaning and some of the other kids rolled with eyes. It sounds like he had made this joke several times before.

"I need you to transform for me." he said jovially. He waited for something to happen. Peter, Sirius was sure it was him, met his eyes. 'The coward!' Sirius thought. After a minute, Halfway Chuuibyou brought out a tube from behind his back. It was a green tube with kanji on the side, but Sirius couldn't guess what was inside. Some of the other kids, like Poison Glasses, turned away. "Actually, I brought this from home for someone else, but it'll work for you as well."

"OK, here I'll persuade you." said Halfway Chuuibyou, as he squirted a little green paste on his finger. "Don't worry, I'll be gentle at first. As long as you listen to me, I won't have to be mean." he smiled at him. Peter tried to turn away, but Halfway Chuuibyou grabbed his face and rubbed some of the paste on his nose and inside his mouth. Halfway Chuuibyou pulled his hand back quietly after Peter bit him.

Seconds later Peter started to struggle and squeak in pain. _"Get a knife. Oh yeah, Justice, can you make it to Diagon Alley quickly?"_ The kids got pale at whatever he just said, Justice nodded at him. " _Good, this is a pet so I need you to go the the pet store and get a rat that is similar. Cut off his toe if you have to."_ The boy winced, looked over at the rest of the group, left the room. Then Stern Lecture handed Halfway Chuuibyou a cheese knife.

"I'm sorry," said Halfway Chuuibyou, turning his attention back to Peter, "you didn't understand that. You see, we know that you have been living the easy life as a pet, but you are about to be replaced. Now," he held the knife to his lips. "lets see how long you can stay awake." Sirius didn't realize that these kids could be so sadistic, he was actually going to torture Peter. The thought that they might actually be adults using a Polijuice potion to sneak into school, crossed his mind.

As Halfway Chuuibyou went to touch the knife to Peter's stomach, he reverted back to a human, knocking Gyaru English back. He started to run, but Pseudo Takaodo, End of Perversion and Loofah tackled him while Tsundere Sniper pulled out a gun and Adult Game Protagonist stepped behind him. "Where did that gun come from?" asked Peter in fright.

His eyes darted around the room. He was still as short as ever, no taller than a 3rd year. His nose and lips were swollen and rep from whatever Halfway Chuuibyou had put on him.

Sirius started walk toward him, but he was stopped by Womanizing Bastard. Peter looked at Gender, probably because he is the smallest in the room. "You- you kids don't believe him right? This man is a killer, he's evil. He tried to kill me." "How dare you!?" Sirius started to step forward but Gender stood in his way. "You need to wait, we are going get to the bottom of this.""I've waited twelve year, I'm not going to wait any longer." Halfway Chuuibyou interrupted him, "So you'd be OK going back to Azkaban? I told you to trust us right?"

Sirius stared at him with cold eyes. If looked could kill then Peter would be dead a thousand times over. "He's got dark powers the rest of us can only dream of! How else did he get out of there?" He looked from person to person trying to find one of them to believe him. "I suppose He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named taught him a few tricks!" Sirius couldn't help but laugh. "Voldemort, teach me tricks?"

Peter flinch at the name. He was starting to sweat profusely.

Sirius growled, "What? Scared to hear you old master's name? I don't blame you, Peter. His lot aren't very happy with you, are they. You haven't been hiding from me for twelve years." Sirius accused, "You've been hiding from Voldemort's old supporters. I heard things in Azkaban, Peter...They all think you're dead, or you'd have to answer to them...I've heard them screaming all sorts of things in their sleep. Sounds like they think the double-crosser double-crossed them. Voldemort went to the Potters' on your information...and Voldemort met his downfall there. And not all Voldemort's supporters ended up in Azkaban, did they? There are still plenty out there, biding their time, pretending they've seen the error of their ways. If they ever got wind that you were still alive, Peter-"

Peter tried to back into the kids that were holding his arms behind his back. "Don't know...what you're talking about..." he said breathlessly, sweat pouring down his face. He tried to look behind at End of Perversion, "You don't believe this, this madness, right-" "Actually," said Halfway Chuuibyou, "we already know the truth about everything. So I have a deal for you."

Halfway Chuuibyou knelt down so he was eye level, "If Voldemort's supporters were after me, it was because I put one of their best men in Azkaban. The spy, Sirius Black!" All Sirius could see was red. "How dare you!" Gender put his hands on Sirius' chest, pushing his back, "Please Black."

Halfway Chuuibyou ignored them, "If you confess right now, you won't be harmed by anyone in this room, I promise. However," he shrugged, and turned away, "if you don't I'm not going to be nice anymore." Peter shook harder at this. "Maybe when I'm finished I'll let Black show you exactly how he feels. By the way, it wasn't nice of you to reveal the location of the Potters' home after he," glancing over at Sirius, "when through the trouble of suggesting you to be the secret-keeper."

It didn't take long for Peter to start to confess everything.

While Pettigrew was telling the story of what happened, Masayoshi had Apparated to London. He suspected that he couldn't get into Diagon Alley that way. He had to go through the pub into the shopping district. He knew that even if he was able to get into Diagon Alley, the pet store would probably not be open but he hoped that he could caught a person going in there to take care of the animals. Otherwise he was going to have brake in and steal one. He couldn't only hope that they didn't have some really dangerous security system.

He got close to the pub and hid outside. He was glad that the owner didn't pay much attention. He couldn't go in because he would be caught. Even though it was Christmas break and there was probably other students coming into Diagon Alley, he didn't want them to contact the school for any reason. He found his hiding spot and closed his eyes to get a little rest.

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The name of Nagisa's snake is Yochina Hebi or Yochi for short. Well, he's not actually 'Nagisa's snake', they just had a mutual agreement to help each other when they need it.


	13. Christmas Eve Surprise continued

I started a new job recently, so I haven't been able to write very much. I'm getting into the flow of things so I should be able to get back into things.

Anyway, here is the second part of this chapter. I accidentally put the same chapter up twice. I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but the time line in the books confused me a little. Sorry, my bad. There are several chapters that I had to reread so I get the details right.

In this first part there is a list but it is in a scene with Black so I'm going to use the nicknames here as well. Sorry, I'll stop talking now.

"English"

 _"Japanese"_

 **"Parseltongue"**

Chapter 11.2 - Christmas eve Surprise or The Firebolt, part 2

After Pettigrew had confessed everything, Kurahashi asked how they were going to present him to the Minister. Karma smiled like he had an idea, "Let's bring him to the Minister." Everyone just looked at him for a moment with a bit of confusion, so he continued. He looked over at Okuda and said, "Poison Gasses, exactly how long does it take to make a Polijuice potion?"

"Are you suggesting that he bring him right to the Minister?" asked Terasaka. " _That's crazy..."_ said Maehara. Karma shrugged, "We want to get our point across, right? How would you do it?" "Normally I would send a recording of the confession but we can't do that." answered Nakamura.

"It takes 4 weeks." Okuda finally answered. Karma then pointed at Black. "We can't trust you to not hurt him. That's why we are going to take turns guarding him, two people at a time. Any complaints?" "What about school?" asked Megu. Karma looked at her, "We have to make sacrifices. Most of this time will be on spring break anyway. We will be in 12 hour shifts."

No one seemed happy about this, but they agreed to do it. "Can we all just agree that some people need to be teamed up with stronger people." said Maehara "Right..." he answered. "So lets come up with some teams." Karma quickly scribbled down at list:

'Rolling Riser and Pseudo Takaodo

Forever 0 and Womanizing Bastard

Poison Glasses and Loofah

Gender and Halfway Chuuibyou and Gyaru English

Adult Game Protagonist and Tsudere Sniper

Stern Lecture and Justice

Flouncy Stag-Beetle and End of Perversion'

 _"Why did you put Poison Glasses with me_ " asked Maramatsu. _"Because," Karma said, "you two have been working on something secret together anyway." "It's no that big a deal."_ he mumbled. " _Why am I thrown in with you guys?"_ asked Nakamura. " _Look,"_ he said, addressing everyone in the room, although Black couldn't understand him, " _the teams are based on who would get along the best. There are an uneven number of people here so either we have one team with 3 members or one with a single person."_

"What's going on?" asked Black. It looked like he was getting a little irritated. Chiba handed him the list and quickly explained the situation. "The sun is about to rise," said Megu, "so we need to get back to the castle." Everyone except for Itona and Terasaka left through the secret tunnel.

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Masayoshi had been sleeping lightly and was awake about daybreak. He managed to slip into Diagon Alley without being noticed. It was very early in the day but he did notice someone going into the pet store. She was a young woman, in her early 20s.

He ran up to her as she was unlocking the door and said, "Thank goodness I caught you. I really need something for my little sister." He hoped that saying it like that would draw more sympathy. "I'm sorry," said she, "The store isn't open today. I'm just here to take care of these guys." "Please," pleaded Masayoshi, "I'll be really quick. I know what I want to get her." She gave him a doubtful look but allowed him in anyway.

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Nagisa was one of the first back into the dorm. He was sleep almost as soon as his head the pillow.

 **"Nagisa"** came a voice next to his ear. " **Nagisa, wake up."** He put his head under the pillow and hoped whatever it was would go away. **"Wake up, lets go downstairs."** Nagisa rolled over and looked at Yochi, who was staring at him impatiently. **"You can go by yourself."** Nagisa told him. " **If I go alone, the other students will get nervous. Besides, it's still cold out."**

With a groan, he rolled out of bed. He was still wearing the same outfit as yesterday. He didn't think that anyone would notice. He sat on the edge of the bed and waited for Yochi climb into his shirt. It felt weird to have him wrapped around his chest when they first met but now it was comforting.

The common room was nearly empty save for Potter and his friends. It looked like they were giving him a lecture or something. "There's nothing you can do! The Dementors will catch Black and he'll go back to Azkaban and, and serves him right!" said Granger. Nagisa was planning to just get something to eat but since they were talking about Black, he decided that he would listen in for a little bit. Potter and his friends weren't really that observant so he could probably listen to the entire conversation without them noticing.

"You heard what Fudge said." Granger continued. "Black isn't affected by Azkaban like normal people are. It's not a punishment for him like it is for others." It was unfortunate that they didn't know why. It would be a different situation if he had actually been guilty. "So what are you saying," said Weasley, looking very tense. "You want to, to kill Black or something?"

Potter sat there in silence. Nagisa wondered if he should say something but decided against it. With the way that Potter was feeling, nothing he said would make a difference. Even it he told him the truth, he probably wouldn't believe it.

They had started talking again but walked out to the room. On his way to the dining hall he was hoping that he would run into someone else from Team E on his way. On his way out he saw a present from home. He decided that he would wait until later to open it.  
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Despite not needing to patrol for Black anymore, Chiba and Hayami still spent a lot of time in the forest. They used the forest for target practice. They had found that it was a great way to release stress. Later on that night they were going to have to watch to make sure that Pettigrew didn't escape and that Black didn't kill him.

On their way back, they saw something very odd. Going to the Care of Magical Creatures Professor's hut was Potter and Granger. It looked like they were following something but neither Chiba or Hayami could see anything.

Granger was clearly out of breath. "Right. We need to sneak over to Hagrid's..." she gasped. "Keep out of sight, Harry..." They moved closer to the hut as the Professor opened the door. Hayami pointed at them, indicating that they should follow them. Chiba shrugged his shoulders, he had no reason not to.

"It's us. We're wearing the Invisibility Cloak. Let us in and we can take it off." came Harry's voice from the doorway. "Yeh shouldn've come!" the Professor whispered harshly before he shut the door quickly. "This is the weirdest thing we've ever done." said the closer Potter. Granger looked back at him and whispered, "Let's move along a bit. We need to get nearer to Buckbeakk!"

" _Their trying to save that Hippogriff that Nagisa rode."_ Chiba pointed out. Hayami nodded, " _I guess that we don't need to be involved."_ They moved quickly back to the castle.  
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Masayoshi had just barely managed return to the castle before dawn. He had cut off the poor old rat's toe, with a lot of hesitation, and healed it before he set off again. He didn't want to do it, but he had to. He wished they could just pretend the rat had been eaten but that wasn't the plan. Of course, if this plan failed there would be more suspicion then ever.

Almost silently, he walked to Weasley's bed and set the rat next to him. The rat seemed content to sleep with him and he could only hope that Weasley wouldn't notice the difference.

Once he had done this, he went to his own bed. Before he knew it, he had fallen into a deep sleep.

Nagisa was awoken once again by Yochi, 'this is becoming a bad habit' he thought as he got up. He had spent the night before in the Shrieking Shack guarding. "What happened to you, Scabbers?" he heard Weasley say. He was relieved that Masayoshi had made it back. He was even more relieved that Weasley believed that it was his rat.

After a few moments he heard Weasley waking Potter. "Oy! Presents!" he yelled. Nagisa yawned, it was still early. He had received his own presents. It seemed like the members of Class E that didn't come with them sent them presents.

After a while he hear Weasley say, "What's that?" Nagisa had to admit that he was a little curious too. "I don't believe it." he whispered in a harsh voice. Nagisa crept closer to see what it was.

In Potter's arms was the broomstick. Potter looked fascinated by it. "What is that?" asked Nagisa, who was now right next to Weasley. "It's the Firebolt. The newest, fastest broom on the market." He explained.

"Who sent it to you?" Weasley asked, turning his attention but to Potter. He shook his head and said, "Look and see if there's a card." Nagisa looked around the floor while Weasley tore apart the wrappings it had been in. "Nothing! Blimey, who'd spend that much on you?" "Maybe your family wanted to surprise you." Nagisa suggested.

Potter nearly laughed at the suggestion. "The Dursley's would never do anything like this for me." It was a curious was of talking. Calling the people that raised you like that. He must not like them very much.

"I bet it was Dumbledore." said Weasely, circling the broom. "He sent you the Invisibility Cloak anonymously..." Potter looked thoughtfully before he said, That was my dads, though. Dumbledore was just passing it on to me. He wouldn't spend hundreds of Galleons on he. He can't go giving students stuff like this-"

Nagisa was only half listening to them when he saw Masayoshi across the room. He excused himself, although they weren't listening to him. Weasley was too busy talking about how much fun it would be to rub it in Malfoy's face.

 _"We're going to celebrate Christmas together, all of team E, except for Chiba and Hayami. They are still with Black. Megu and I will replace them later today."_ said Masayoshi. Nagisa nodded and followed him out of the room carrying the presents that had been sent to him.

They met almost everyone else in the Room of Requirement. While they were celebrating together, opening presents from both their families and the other members of the former class E that didn't come with them, Potter and Weasely were talking about where the broom might have come from when Granger walked into the room.

That evening, after Hermione spoke privately with Professor McGonagall, Harry and Ron returned to the common room to find Professor McGonagall in the middle of the room, hold the Firebolt. Hermione was also in the room, hiding her face behind a book. Professor McGonagall informed them that she would have to take the broom and test it for jinx, much to their dismay.

After she left Ron turned to Hermione furiously. "What did you go running to McGonagall for?" he accused her. She tossed her book aside, a blush covering her face, and still defiantly to Ron, "Because I thought, and Professor McGongall agrees with me, that that broom was probably sent to Harry by Sirius Black!" Both Ron and Harry looked shocked.


	14. A Change in Plans or The Patronus

Sorry this took so long, this chapter was difficult for me. Well, I don't really have a very good excuse. In the book, chapter 12 goes all the way to Feburary but things are happening with Team E so I'm breaking this up into two chapters. It also lets me post this faster.

I've seen a few people mention that Nagisa should have been in Slytherin, and I see where they're coming from because he does have those traits but it seems to me that he is more brave then he is ambitious. There are also some other examples of people going into houses that are unexpected, like Harry Potter being a Parseltongue and Sirius being from a pureblood house but going into Gryffindor. If you believe that he should be in Slytherin then that's fine too, these are just my thoughts.

It actually brings up a good question, does your state of mind effect how you're sorted? Or does it look at your entire mind, throughout your life?

I had planned to finish The Prisoner of Azkaban at least. I'm not sure if I'm going to do the triwizard tournament yet but if I do, I will probably either change out some of the characters or just add more of Class E. If I do, it will be in a new story. It really depends on how this ends. I have an idea of how it should end but while I'm writing I'll sometimes come up with something better than I had planned so the story will change.

Ok, I'll stop rambling on.

"English"

 _"Japanese"_

 **"Parseltongue"**

Chapter 12 - A Change in Plans or The Patronus

Severus found something very disturbing at the end of Christmas break. Since the beginning of year some of his potion ingredients had gone missing; not much, just little bits here and there. He had asked the classes about it but he couldn't find anyone that seemed suspicious enough to punish. During winter break significantly more had been stolen.

He was beginning to become frustrated with the situation and decided that he would go into the Room of Requirement, where he had stored some of his old things from his own school days. He wanted to look through a certain book that he had stored there.

When he entered the room, he saw Akabane, a Slytherin student, standing over one of the other students, a Ravenclaw that he didn't remember. In front of them was a boiling cauldron and some of the stolen ingredients scattered around it. They looked at him, the girl was very nervous but Akabane looked as confident as ever.

"Follow me immediately." he growled at them and turned on his heel. He was going to take them to the Headmasters office. They were probably going to be expelled. This wouldn't bring his ingredients back but it would stop them from being stolen. He had hoped that a Slytherin wouldn't be involved but it didn't really matter now.

Behind him, he heard them whisper in Japanese. " _What are we going to do?"_ He heard the girl say. " _Just don't say anything, I'll handle this."_ Akabane responded. "That's enough!" Severus barked. He didn't know what they were saying be he suspected that they were talking about how to get out of this. He had noticed that all of the transfer students were weirdly close, despite being from different houses as well as being different ages.

He wasn't very familiar with how the houses were divided in Japan but even if they were all from the same house, or if they weren't divided at all, it was still weird that they stayed this close.

He stepped up to the gargoyle statue and said the password. The gargoyle jumped out of the way to reveal a staircase behind it. As the staircase started to ascend he stepped onto it, followed by the students. The smug look never left Akabane's face but the girl was getting more and more nervous by the second. She bit her lip and twisted her hands in front of her.

The Headmaster was in his office, reading something at his desk. Fawks, the phoenix, stared at them intensely when the they entered. "How may I help you, Professor?" Professor Dumbledore said. He was a man that always had a mysterious air around him. Even a friendly greeting like that held something behind it.

"These two," he pushed the both of them forward by the back of their necks, "have been stealing potion ingredients from me. They were making a potion in the Room of Requirement." Professor Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully for a moment. "How did you find that room?" he addressed the students. Akabane stepped forward, "It was an accident. Okada and I wanted to make some potions together and were looking for a place when this door appeared to us." "I see." Professor Dumbledore responded. "What kind of potion were you two trying to creature?" he persisted.

"Well," Akabane continued to talk for the both of them. "Okada told me that she found a polijuice potion recipe that she might be able to improve on." "Really?" said Professor Dumbledore. Severus had to admit that he was also really impressed that someone so young person would have such a talent for the art, if it was true. "That is a little advanced for you, is it not?" Professor Dumbledore asked her directly.

Okada bit her lip and looked over Akabane. He simply shrugged his shoulders. "Um, I am able to recreate this potion, however I am not satisfied with the way that the potions are explained in the books. I think that there is a better way to make them." It was same feeling he had when he was in school.

"You do realize that stealing from a Professor is very serious?" said Professor Dumbledore sternly. Okada looked down at her feet but Akabane stepped forward. "We never said that we stole those ingredients." Severus narrowed his eyes at them, they were obviously lying. All the signs pointed to them and there was no other suspects. Akabane may be a good liar but Okada was definitely not.

"Where did you get them, then?" accused Severus. Akabane smiled at him smugly from over his shoulder. "My family sent me a lot of supplies so that I could not only be prepared but also succeed. I would have told you if you had just asked me but I guess it was just easier to jump to conclusions."

Severus practically growled at the brat. He had the nerve to speak this way to a teacher. Akabane leaned over to Okadu and whispered something in Japanese, " _We are going to lose that potion so we need to come up with something else. It might actually work out for us."_ "Something you want to share with us?" Severus interrupted them.

"Professor Snape," Professor Dumbledore addressed him, "would you take care of that potion? If you could work out a time to work with them, that would be excellent. You two are free to leave." He gestured to the door. Akabane nodded at Okada and she walked to the door without him. "I want to talk to you for a moment." Akabane said.

Even as the door closed behind her, Akabane just stared at the Headmaster. "If you would excuse us." Professor Dumbledore said to Severus. He didn't like things being kept from him but it wasn't like he had much choice.

Professor Dumbledore waited until Professor Snape had left the room to address the student in front of him. "Your name is Karma, correct?" Karma nodded. "That potion was important, we were planning something." Karma said offhandedly. "And what might that be?" Professor Dumbledore asked. Karma smirked, "I not sure if I'm willing to tell you yet."

Professor Dumbledore thought about what he had learned about these students. He couldn't help but wonder how much those experiences shaped their lives. That was probably the reason that they were all so close. If they were left alone, they could cause a fair bit of trouble. "Do you not trust me?" Dumbledore asked. Karma smiled wider, "Have you given me a reason?"

He yawned and looked toward the door. "I will give you an answer tomorrow, let me think about it." Dumbledore watched him in silence as he walked out the door.  
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Karma called a meeting for all of Team E in the Shack. Megu and Masayoshi were looking very tired, they were about to switch places with Kurahashi and Okajima. It took a while for everyone else to get there. Black didn't look any less hostel then when Pettigrew first arrived there.

Karma looked around the room impatiently, biting his thumb in deep thought. Almost everyone was there, only a few stragglers remained. He was tired of waiting for them and the news he had was too important to be kept to himself.

"Listen," he called to the room, getting everyone's attention, "we have to change our plans." There was a low murmur throughout the cabin. "What do you mean?" asked Black. Just after he announced this, the last remaining people came into the room. Karma sighed, "The potion we were making was caught, but it's possible to use this to our advantage." There were a lot of complains but the loudest came from Nakamura, "I thought we were almost done!? This isn't fair." she pouted.

"Okada and I were caught by Professor Snape so we took all the blame," Karma announced. "He took us straight to the Headmaster and, after everyone else left the room, I told him that I would come and visit him tomorrow." "What are you planning?" asked Terasaka suspiciously. Karma smiled slyly at him, "Professor Dumbledore is very powerful and pretty perceptive. Having him suspect us could make things difficult. Plus it's really hard to tell what he is thinking, he has a really mysterious face. Instead of going around him, lets use him to our advantage."  
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The next day in class, Nagisa thought about how the plans had changed and what Karma might say to the Headmaster while gathering wood for some flame-loving lizards during his Care of Magical Creatures class. By the time Divination rolled around, he figured that Karma would already be at the office.

The lesson was on palmistry but he never did have any luck with things like this. Trelawney Sensei made a big deal about how Harry had a short life. He suspected that she didn't have any luck with these things either.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was a class he was actually really looking forward to. Lupin Sensei was a good teacher that cared about his students. Karma implied that he knew something about him but since he didn't say anything it probably wasn't too dangerous. He looked a bit ill, but still he had the same upbeat attitude as before.

As he followed the rest of the students out the door, he overheard the conversation between Potter and his friends. "Yes, you were. I said I wonder what's wrong with Lupin, and you-" said Weaslely. "Well, isn't it obvious?" she said, as if anyone could figure it out. "If you didn't want to tell us, don't." snapped Weasley. "Fine," she said in a disdainful way before stalking off.

Nagisa was curious as to what she figured out. He followed her out to the courtyard. "Miss Granger," he called to her. She turned around sharply, it was clear that she was still very angry. "I am sorry but I have overheard your conversation and I couldn't help but be curious." "Oh," she said, blushing slightly. "What are you curious about?" "You said you know why Professor Lupin has not been feeling well." Nagisa bit his lip lightly. "I am very concerned about him, if you would share with me perhaps I could find a way to help."

Granger shook her head, "Don't worry. It's nothing to serious." "Really?" he pressed, although he had a feeling that she wasn't going to tell him anything more. "Yes, I swear." "OK," he sighed, "I suppose I'll drop it, if there really is nothing that I can help with." he replied before walking away.

It didn't matter anyway. He would eventually be able to figure out whatever it was from Karma. Karma would probably tell him whatever it was if or when it became prevalent.  
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At the same time, Karma had finally got to his meeting with the Headmaster. When he entered the office, the Headmaster was sitting comfortably behind his desk. He had a certain twinkle in his eye that gave him a mysterious air, it put Karma on edge. He realized yesterday why it seemed familiar; he was reminded of Nagisa. Well, that wasn't correct either. Before Korosensei, Nagisa was unaware of the dangerous air that surrounded him but this man knew what he was and he looked like he used it whenever he felt he could.

"Welcome Karma," he greeted, "would you like a Lemon Drop?" He offered some candy. Karma walked over to the desk and smiled at him, "Nah," he kept his voice light, giving himself a lofty air, "I would rather get down to business." "I see," responded the professor, "Then, would you care to tell me why that potion was so important?

Karma leaned back in the seat and gave him a lazy look. He thought that Dumbledore would try put him into a mental corner if he had the chance, he wouldn't let that happen. He had to be one step ahead.

"All this talk about Black got me very concerned for my safety and the safety of my friends." he said, forging a frightened face. "So I began looking into him. I figure the more I know about him the better I can defend myself." "I see," said the Professor. "Anyway," Karma continued. "I found some weird things and thought, 'is it possible that he was framed?'" "What sort of weird things did you find?" asked the Headmaster. Karma rested his chin in his hand, "Things about his past." "And that is why you needed a polijuice potion?" Asked Dumbledore. Karma smiled at him, "I had some investigating to do over the holidays but the potion ended up taking to long."

Professor Dumbledore didn't say anything about, he didn't even frown at him, but Karma could tell that he didn't believe him, or at least thought he wasn't tell that entire truth. He wasn't, but he didn't want Dumbledore to know that.

Deciding to change to the subject he said, "I wonder if you know about all the things that happened at my old school?" This was a good way of seeing what he what Professor Dumbledore know and was willing to tell him. If the Headmaster knew everything he would skirt around the truth to keep a bit of mystery around him but since Karma already knew the entire situation, there wouldn't be anything to keep from him. If he didn't know everything, he would act like he did but be vague about it.

"I met with your former Professor." the Headmaster answered. Karasuma was pretty strict about the rules, but if he thought that they would succeed better or that being caught would cause trouble for the government, he would give a little more information away, although he might spin the truth to throw suspicion off them. "So I'm sure that you're aware that we are very familiar with what dark wizards are like. We also know how to protect ourselves. I don't like innocent people being punished for no reason. But that doesn't mean that we weren't going to confront him. After all, even a helpless mouse would attack a cat if he were backed into a corner."

Professor Dumbledore waited and sat there in silence, obviously thinking about what to say next. Depending on what he said next, Karma would decide how much of the true he would tell him.

"What you were trying to do is very dangerous." said the Headmaster evenly. Karma shrugged his shoulders, acting like he didn't care. "I wouldn't try alone." he replied. "If there was a teacher to help, life would be a lot easier but even if there wasn't it would stop us. If there was one lesson that Korosensei wanted to impart on us, it was to follow though with what we believed even if it was hard."

Karma didn't wait to listen to what the Headmaster had to say. He walked out the door, waving his hand behind him. This way the Headmaster would have a chance to really think about what he had to say. In the following week or so, he would have be able to see how much they could trust the Headmaster without giving away any information that the Headmaster wouldn't find out anyway.  
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Thursday evening Harry went to the History of Magic classroom for his extra defense lessons. On his way he couldn't help but wonder how Professor Lupin was going to teach him to defend himself. It wasn't like he could actually bring a Dementor here, unless he had some sort of security to protect them.

He lit the lamps with his wand when he got there and only had to wait for about five minutes before Professor Lupin arrived. He was carrying a heavy looking packing case that he heaved onto Professor Binn's desk. "What's that?" Harry asked. Professor Lupin took turned to Harry as he took off his cloak, "Another Boggart. I've been combing the castle ever since Tuesday, and very luckily, I found this one lurking inside Mr. Flich's filing cabinet. It's the nearest we'll get to a real Dementor. The Boggart will turn into a Dementor when he sees you, so we'll be able to practice on him. I can store him in my office when we're not using him; there's a cupboard under my desk he'll like."

While Harry and Professor Lupin started with practice something terrible happened at the shack. Karma and Chiba were at one of the lunch tables talking when Masayoshi came running up to him. " _Karma,"_ he panted, " _Pettigrew's gone."_

As both he had Chiba jumped up, several of the other students looked at him curiously. " _What happened!?"_ he demanded. " _I don't know, we were there and he bit Megu, changed into a rat and left through a hole in the wall." "What about Black?"_ Karma asked. If Pettigrew was gone then Black would be livid and probably try and do something stupid. " _He left but Nagisa and some of the others went to stop him."_


	15. Part 2

I know that I've said this before, but all the support that I've received for the story is really amazing. Thank you all. I honestly get very excited when I read a new review or see that someone new is following me.

"English"

" _Japanese"_

 **"Parsletongue"**

Chapter 12.5 - continued

Chiba ran to the owlery as soon as Karma called a meeting. If Hayami didn't know about what had happened, that was where she would probably be. Aside from the forest, in was one of their favorite places to be because you could see most of the school grounds from there. It was like being on top of the world, with a perfect view of everything. If he had to set up a place to snipe from it would probably be there.

She had said that she was going to hang out with some of the other girls but she wasn't the type to like stuff like that for very long. It wasn't like she didn't like being a girl or doing girly things, its just that she didn't like doing that kind of stuff for very long at a time. Sometimes, she preferred to be alone to do stuff like play with kittens or look at clothes.

He could understand. He also liked hanging out with some of the other guys but he didn't feel the need to try and fit in with them. Before going into to Class E he was sort of an outcast, not hated but just unnoticed, but ever since meeting Korosensei, everyone did everything they could to welcome one another. He had thought that he preferred to be unnoticed but having others to talk to better than he thought it would be.

When he got to the owlerly, he found that there were some other students but Hayami wasn't among them. While he was there he decided to say hello to his owl, Shinaku and Hayami's, called Rashi.

While he did, he went over to the window and scanned the horizon. He was hoping that he could see unusual movement but nothing seemed to be out of place. He held Shinaku at eye lever and pointed to the forest before sending her out. Rashi followed on his own. He had to smile at that.

"Mate," called a student behind him. He turned to see a student a few years younger, "I think you forget your letter." Chiba shook his head, "I just wanted to say hello to them, I didn't have a letter." The student looked confused, "Do you have two owls or something?" Chiba gazed out into the distance, still looking for anything unusual. "No, one is mine and the other belongs to my friend."

Deciding that he had spent long enough here, he turned and left the room. It was a fairly quick trip through the tunnels. There was no one at the Shack so, even though they had been storing some of their weapons there, he needed to there in case someone came back. This was the only way they could spread information for now.  
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Meanwhile, Maehara had finally caught up with Black. He was running in the form of a huge black dog. He was especially difficult to see in the dark forest and the fact that Black was running on all fours made it really hard to keep up. Black was running out of breath quickly but still perusing Pettigrew with no way of finding him. While weaving through the trees, he noticed Muramatsu coming up next to him. " _Go around that side. Nagisa is going to cut him off so lets provide some backup."_

Maehara nodded and headed in that direction. He tried to keep Black in view but the trees made it difficult. They were getting too close to castle. If they didn't stop him soon, they were all going to be in trouble.

A shot in front of him made Black jump to the side. He couldn't see where Hayami was shooting from but he knew it was her. The moment he slowed down, just that single instance, Nagisa took that opportunity to stop him. He step in Black's way and clapped his hands loudly.

It didn't look like anything that amazing, just him clapping but Black fell to the ground just like Takaoka did. He wondered what Nagisa did to knock people down like that without touching them. Once Black hit the ground Terasaka was on him, pinning him under his weight.  
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Hayami was the first to return. The moment she entered the Shack Chiba stood to greet her. " _We caught up with him."_ He nodded his head. _"What now?"_ She gave him a confused look. " _How are we going to convince him to stay now?"_ He explained. She sighed and put a hand to her temple. " _I don't know. And now Pettigrew is missing to and he knows that we are looking for him." "Besides, we could only find him because of Weasley before but now he probably won't go back to him."_

The air between them was heavy when Terasaka and Karma walked in through the doorway, each holding one of Black's arms. About half of the team followed. Nagisa was the last to get there. As Karma was tying up Black, Nagisa went over to the corner and started speaking to Yochi. Even though she didn't understand what they were saying, she wanted to listen anyway.

 **"Please go out into the** **forest and tell anyone who would listen to look for Pettigrew."** Nagisa said. The snake lifted his head to eye level. **"Come on, Nagisa. Do I have to? They're not going to listen to me."** Nagisa looked like he was starting to get irritated with him. She couldn't help but wonder what they were saying. **"Just explain that the Dementors are going to have to start searching for forest further if someone isn't caught and tell them we need help. Don't forget to explain what he looks like and that he is a Aminagus. This potion will keep you warm for a while." "I know, I know."** The snake hissed as he headed out into the forest.

Hayami hadn't noticed Karma walking up beside her. " _Is he going to help?"_ He asked. Nagisa sighed, he looked tired. " _Yeah, he isn't happy though."_ _"Do you have a plan?"_ She asked Karma. He shook his head and started walking back to the center of the group. " _We can't let Black leave,"_ He announced loud enough to gain the attention of the room.

" _I thought that Clap thing was suppose to stun people."_ Maehara asked. " _It does."_ Answered Nagisa. "I _knocked him out."_ added Terasaka. " _Pettigrew is gone and we don't have any information about where to find him. I couldn't even guess where to start looking for him."_ Karma said flippantly. Chiba gave him a cold look, " _Are you suggesting that we just give up?"_

Karma shook his head. " _No,"_ He smirked at them. Hayami knew that meant that he actually had a plan in the making but didn't want to tell them yet. " _Actually, we should use the Headmaster. When I talked to him, I implied that Black was innocent and that we should look for evidence. Plus,"_ He pointed to Nagisa, " _we could press Lupin harder. I'm certain they kept in contact, and even if they didn't he will probably testify that Black doesn't seem like the type to do something like that. He probably knows that Black was the secret keeper."_

Nagisa looked over at him, " _What do you mean 'press him harder'?"_ " _Snape already gave us hints, didn't anyone caught it?"_ he responded. Nakamura looked surprised for a moment. " _Wait, so he really is a werewolf?" "Bingo."_ Karma pointed at her. " _And that's what we call 'blackmail'. It can't be me or Okuda, we are already involved with Dumbledore and Snape, both have a history with Lupin."_

 _"I'm not sure that the Headmaster knows that Black and Pettigrew are Animagus'."_ said Nakamura. Karma gave her an evil smile, " _He didn't say it but he absolutely knows that Lupin is one. He probably suspects that Black is one, if Lupin didn't tell him allready."_

" _Ok,"_ said Megu _, "what is our plan then?"_ Karma shrugged, " _Same thing did with Black, I guess. For now at least. I'll be working with Dumbledore and Okuda will distract Snape. He probably won't be a problem, but he could disrupt us if we leave him alone."_ He looked at her and said, " _Be careful, he's really irritated at me right now and he's kinda petty."_ She nodded. _"Nagisa, don't use the 'werewolf'_ thing against him yet."  
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The next week the girls went as a group to see the Quidditch match between Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Most of them, at least the ones that cared even a little, were disappointed that Slytherin won. But that would mean that they are going to play Gryffindor later, which would be exciting too.

As they were walking back to their school, they noticed Granger walking ahead of them. She seemed to be as stressed with school work as they were. " _I wonder if we should invite her to some of our study sessions?"_ suggested Kaede. The other seemed to be in agreement, " _That's not a good idea, we often spend that time talking about our plans and past so we can't study with her until we are super careful."_ argued Megu.

One day, while studying in the common room, Nakamura heard Granger get upset that someone disturbed her and she stormed off. "How's she doing it?" she heard Weasley say quietly. "Doing what?" said Potter. "Getting to all her classes! I heard her talking to Professor Vector, that Arithmancy witch, this morning." he explained, "They were going on about yesterday's lesson, but Herione can't've been there, because she was with us in Care of Magical Creatures! and Ernie McMillan told me she's never missed a Muggle Studies class, but half of them are at the same time as Divination, and she'd never missed one of them either!"

Nakamura wondered the same thing, but she also remembered something that her father used to say, 'Anything is possible in this world of magic'. Granger probably found a way to copy her self or something like that.

Before they could continue the conversation, the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team came in to talk to Potter about not being able to get the broom back.  
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Dumbledore noticed that Karma Akabane had been causing trouble all month; talking about Animagus' and bring up Black in crowds of students. It looked like he was trying to bring attention to himself. He wasn't sure why he was doing this but he decided to play along for now.

In the beginning February, he decided to call him back to his office. He couldn't quite figure out what he was trying to do but he was afraid that Karma was going to get himself in a lot of trouble. At first, Dumbledore was worried that he was going to get that sweet Ravenclaw girl wrapped up in his mischievous plans, but from what he had heard, she had been doing very well with Severus the last couple of weeks. He was very impressed with her progress, she was very talented.

When Karma entered his office, he smiled at him. Karma responded with a smirk of his own, as he slowly walked toward the desk with his hands behind his head. Karma always seemed to have this relaxed, almost lazy air around him. It seemed like nothing could shake him.

"Mr. Akabane," said Dumbledore, gesturing to the chair in front of the desk. Karma slouched in the chair and gave him a confident, lazy smirk. "Hello Professor," he returned. He was trying to put up a front, but Dumbledore needed to know what he was trying to hide. "It seems like you have been causing quite an uproar lately." Dumbledore stated.

Karma's face fell, he glanced toward the window with a bored look. "I'm just looking into things that are interesting to me. I was hoping that a someone with knowledge about the subject would help me out." Dumbledore suspected that he knew about Lupin but he didn't know how. He knew that Snape had been giving little hints but that by itself should not have been enough to figure it out. He had to be getting information from somewhere else.

"So you are interested in Animagus'?" Dumbledore asked. Karma was obviously trying to hide a smirk. "I heard some interesting things about them. I wonder what kind of animal I would turn into?" he asked no one. He was talking like Dumbledore wasn't even there. "I wonder I turned into one without being registered, if I would be able to get away with it."

'So that's what he'd doing?' Dumbledore thought. Karma was dropping hints about what he knows about Lupin. Since he had also been talking about Black, that probably means that he knows they were friends.

"It is a grave offence to not register." Dumbledore pointed out. Karma turned to him for the first time since entering the office. "Are people caught for that a lot." "It happens occasionally." Karma regained his air of arrogance, "If you found out that a group of students that did so, what do you think you would do?"

Dumbledore wondered what he was doing. It seemed like he was either talking about Lupin and his friends or implying this is what he had done. It is possible that it could be both. This conversation was getting dangerous, Dumbledore felt he needed to get to the bottom of this quickly. Karma was very confident, but he didn't seem to understand the dangers of what he was doing. Either that or he just doesn't care.  
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While Karma was talking to Dumbledore, some of the other members of the team were in the forest. " _We need to brush up of some of our skills."_ said Megu, standing in front of the the rest of the group. She took out her wand and with a flourish she said, "Expecto Patronum!" A light silvery thread extended from the tip and became a small mercat that ran around them playfully.

" _Nice!"_ commented Nakamura. " _My turn._ Expecto Patronum!" The silver stream slowly became a Dolphin started swimming through the air. They turned to Itona, " _Your turn,"_ said Nakamura. He shook his head, " _I can't. I doesn't work for me."_ Nagisa shook his head as well, " _Me either. It's too weak to to make an animal." "You just have to think of a really happy thought."_ said Maehara. Nagisa looked away. " _I know, but it just doesn't work for me."_

 _"What do you think about?"_ asked Kaede. Nagisa blushed and looked away, " _I think about how my family was before my parents got divorced. We went on a picnic once and everyone got along. It was always what I try to remember."_ He mumbled. Masayoshi put a hand to his chin and said, " _Try to think about Korosensei." "That's a great idea."_ Added Kurahashi.

For the next hour or so, they worked on Patronus' with Itona and Nagisa. While they were working Black slowly approached them. "Not bad." he commented. Nakamura turned to him. Megu walked up to him and said, "We have worked very hard to achieve the level of spells that we have achieved." He nodded and looked past her to were they two shortest guys of the team here working hard to master this spell. "It's a useful spell." Megu said.

"What are we going about Pettigrew?" he said. She sighed. He had asked about that several times. "We are looking for but there isn't much to we can do yet without some information. Yoshi can't help very much because of the cold weather." "Which one of you is Yoshi?" he asked.

She had forgotten that he didn't know who he was. "Yoshi is Nagisa's little snake friend." He nodded slightly. He looked a bit uncertain at the mention of him. She had heard that Nagisa had used Yoshi to threaten Black when they first met.  
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Harry finally got his broom had gotten his broom back, jinx free. There had never been anything wrong with it in the first place. There was a group around him at after he showed it to Wood. It was passed around and admired. They were certain they would win against Slytherin now.

As the crowd dispersed, and Ron and Harry was that Hermione was over at her own table, bend over her studies while carefully avoiding looking at them. She looked up at the when the approached. "I got it back." said Harry as he hold it up broom. "See, Hermione?" said Ron, "There wasn't anything wrong with it!"

"Well," Hermone responded, "there might have been! I mean, at least you know now that it's safe!" Harry looked down, "Yeah, I suppose st. I'd better put it upstairs." "I'll take it!" said Ron eagerly.

Harry decided to sit down at talk to Hermione while he did that. He was going to try and convince her to drop a couple of her subjects. It was plain to see that she was exhausted from all the work that she was trying to do. He didn't get a chance to talk with for very long before they heard a strangled cry from upstairs.

The entire common room became silent as Ron heavy footsteps got louder. He ran down the stairs, dragging a bedsheet. "LOOK!" he yelled at her holding out the sheet as he strided over to her table. "LOOK!" He held the sheet in her face. She could see something red on it and had to lean away.

"Ron, what-" She started to ask. "SCABBERS! LOOK! SCABBERS! BLOOD!" They had the attention of the entire room. "HE'S GONE! HE WAS LYING DEAD ON THE FLOOR WHILE THAT MANGY...THING RAN AFTER ANOTHER ONE!"

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Ominogashinaku is the full name Chiba's own, Hayami's is Subarashī shotto


	16. Out for Revenge or Gryffindor vs Ravencl

Sorry it's taking my so long. I really have no excuse.

"English"

 _"Japanese"_

 **"Parsoltounge"**

Chapter 13 - Out for Revenge or Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw

Terasaka and Muramatsu were talking in the hallway when Muramatsu saw something that bothered him. Okuda, one of the shortest girls in class E, was walking down the hall looking really upset. " _What's the matter Okuda?"_ said Muramatsu, as she got closer. She just shook her head and tried to walk on. Normally he Terasaka would just let it go, he wasn't really the type to deal with girls but Muramatsu didn't let her get by.

" _Hold on."_ said Muramatsu, grabbing on to her hand. Terasaka had forgotten that Karma mentioned that they had been spending a lot of time together lately. Maybe they were going out or something. " _I made a little cake that the elves said was very good and thought I'd give it to Karma-kun but..."_ she looked away like she was embarrassed about something. " _What happened?"_ Muramatsu pressed.

She bit her lip and said, " _Some really mean boys from Slytherin took the cake and ate it."_ This made Terasaka's blood boil. Those punks thought that they could pick on one of theirs. " _We're take care of this."_ he growled before storming off.

As he was on his way to the Slytherin dorm he saw Karma sitting on the windowsill of the hallway looking intensely out to the courtyard. " _Hey,"_ he called out, trying to get Karma's attention. Karma ignored him so he walked up and grabbed his shoulder. " _You see them?"_ Karma said quietly.

Terasaka looked the in the direction that he was staring. Outside was a group of Slytherins hanging out in the courtyard. Karma was glaring at them so intensely that it was almost frightening. " _Are those the guys that were picking on Okuda?"_ Terasaka asked him. Karma nodded slightly. " _I'll take care of it."_ He said.

Although Terasaka wanted to do something, Karma was already planning something. While he could have gone out and punched those guys, whatever Karma was going to do would probably be much worse. Sometimes Karma could be a real devil.  
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Nagisa was thinking about what Karma meant by using that fact that Lupin Sensei was a werewolf against him. He didn't really think that he could do something like that. That seemed more like something that Karma would do. He was wondering what he could do to get information without resorting to blackmail or threats. Lupin Sensei was a good teacher, maybe if he asked to learn something more he could also learn what he needed at the same time.

Even though he had been trying to stay out of the way, he found that he often found himself walking in the same path as Potter and his friends. Potter's friends were fighting at the moment over Pettigrew, who was hidden under the guise as Weasleys pet. He thought that her cat had eaten him. He wasn't trying to listen to their arguments but it just happened that way.

Granger and Potter was walking down the hall just in front of him. They didn't noticed him, but that wasn't unusual. It was probably because he didn't make any effort to make his presence known. "Okay, side with Ron, I knew you would!" she yelled at him. "First the Firebolt, now Scabbers, everything's my fault, isn't it! Just leave me alone, Harry, I've got a lot of work to do!"

She stormed off, leaving Potter alone. He looked disappointed but Nagisa didn't really want to talk to him about it. While he did understand what was going on, he didn't want to get involved. He felt like he already knew more about them than he was comfortable with. He slipped past him, trying to be unnoticed. If Potter noticed him, he didn't react.  
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Maehara and Masayoshi were sitting in the bleachers with their work books in their laps. The idea was to get some studying done but they were tired of it. They chose that spot so that they could watch the Gryffindor practice.

They watched as the team showed up as well as the youngest Weasley boy. The whole group gathered, including the teacher, to admire Potter's new broom for quite a while until finally she and Weasley walked over to the stands.

Once they were out of the way, Potter took off. He sped around the field faster than everything they had ever seen, except for Koro-sensei of course. He even scared the girl on the team one time before diving to the ground. _"Its a really cool broom."_ commented Maehara. Masayoshi nodded, " _Yeah, it is."_

"Harry, I'm letting the Snitch out!" Called the captain of the team. It was just a few seconds later he caught it. Everyone on the team cheered him on, and even Maehara and Masayoshi gave him his full attention. Potter let it go and caught it again.

They kept going for quite a while and after a few more minutes Maehara and Masayoshi began to focus on their studies again. When the team was done with practice Potter handed the broom to Weasley, who looked extremely happy. Weasley took off in the same way as Potter had done before.

The members of Team E were talking with each other, not paying attention to them at all. They were almost done with their school work for the day when the sun started to go down. Looking up they could see that Potter and Weasely were still messing around on the broom. " _Let's go back."_ said Masayoshi. Maehara agreed.  
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The sun had completely set when Harry and Ron decided to call it a day. Madam Hooch had fallen asleep during their practice and was mad at them for not waking her up before then.

While they were walking out of the stadium, talking about how great the Firebolt was, Harry saw a pair of eyes gleaming in the shadows. He could feel his heart in his throat, he was certain that it was the Grim.

Ron noticed what was happening and said, "What's the matter?" Harry pointed. Ron pulled his wand and muttered, "Lumos." The light shined across the grass and lit up the trees. At the bottom of the tree was Crookshanks.

Anger flashed across Ron's face. He grabbed a stone and yelled, "Get out of here!" But before he could throw it at the cat. Ron turned to him and said, "See?" he dropped the stone to the ground. "She's still letting him wander about wherever he want, probably washing down Scabbers with a couple of birds now..." Harry took a deep breath as relief washed through him.

He didn't say anything. He was a little embarrassed at the panic that he had felt, but he was so sure it was the Grim. He kept quiet and kept his eyes on the the castle until he got to the front entrance.  
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The next morning, Chiba and Hayami were sitting together, eating breakfast. Out of the corner of their eyes, they could see Potter and a bunch of other boys came threw the door. He was carrying his new broom. Most people in the room were awestruck.

 _"Masayoshi says that it's a really good broom."_ Chiba said to Hayami. They were both looking in the direction while so many over people gathered. _"Lets go look,"_ she responded. He shrugged and followed her through the crowd.

"Now, now, Penny," said one of the Weasley boys as a girl was holding the broom. "no sabotage! Penelope and I have got a bet on. Ten Galleons on the outcome of the match!" Hayami stepped to the side as she put the broom back and thanked Potter before returning to her table.

The older Weasley boy leaned close to Potter and quickly whispered, "Harry, make sure you win. I haven't got ten Galleons." He lifted his head and looked in that girls direction, "Yes, I'm coming, Penny!" he then took off to join her for some breakfast.

Some of the Slytherins came over to the table, "Sure you can manage that broom, Potter?" he said. Chiba was sure that he had seen Karma hanging out with this group. Everything about this group just oozed smugness. Although in a way, he wasn't all too much different from Karma or Asuna but if was different with them. Probably because they didn't really know these boys.

While he started to tease Potter, Chiba and Hayami went back to their own table. " _That boom looks fast but I don't think that you could shoot from it very accurately."_ Commented Hayami. Chiba nodded, " _That's true, unless of course you had practice on something like that. I'm not good on broom but I'm sure that if you worked on it you could get it down, I'm sure that you could master it in no time."  
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They when back to their table and discussed the dynamics of shooting while on a broom. It was a conversation they had before but if was still a fun and interesting topic. In the background they could hear a lot of the Gryffindors laughing behind them.

Later on that morning they walked together to the Quidditch field to watch the game together. It was a beautiful day, cool and bright with just a bit of a breeze. As they climbed into the stands they noticed Karma sitting in an out of the way place in the back corner. When Chiba pointed him out Hayami nodded.

His full focus was on the group of Slytherins that had teased Potter earlier that day. So much so that he didn't react when Chiba and Hayami sat next to him. The three of them sat in silence while that seats around them started filling up. Not many people wanted to sit this far away from the action, but they did have a good view of the audience.

A group of Team E girls saw them after a few minutes and waved their hands at them. Hayami looked at Chiba and said, _"I'm going."_ He nodded back at her before turning his attention to Karma.

It was almost painful how hard he was focusing on this young group. Suddenly, without looking up, he said, " _What would you do if someone started messing with Hayami?"_ _"What do you mean?"_ answered Chiba. Karma smiled and shook his head, " _No, never mind. Its not that same thing."_

Karma gave a hollow laugh and leaned back slightly. Chiba waited quietly for Karma to explain what he meant. He didn't have to wait for very long. While he was waiting the game was about to start; the team captains were meeting in the middle of the field to shake hands when he decided to start talking again.

" _Okuda isn't like Hayami,"_ he said, his gaze never wavered, " _if someone started messing with her, she wouldn't stand for it. But Okuda is to soft spoken, she thinks that she doesn't know how to deal with people so she doesn't."_ Chiba didn't say anything yet but he did understand why Karma was acting the way he was. At least one of those boys started messing with Okuda. It was obvious to everyone that he and Hayami were going out, even if they didn't say it out loud, but he wondered if that means that Karma liked Okuda. It could be that he was just her friend and he wanted to defend her.

Karma's head lifted up and he followed them as the group of Slytherins left the stadium. He started to get up but Chiba grabbed the back of his robe. " _What are you going to do?"_ he asked seriously. Karma sighed, closed his eyes, and put his head in his hands, " _Nothing yet."_ The crowd around them gave a sound of disappointment about something that happened in the game, although it was prefect timing for their situation.

While they were sitting there alone, surrounded by people, they could hear the announcer say, "Gryffindor leads by eighty points to zero, and look at that Firebolt go! Potter's really putting it through its paces now, see it turn. Chang's comet is just no match for it, the Firebolt's precision, balance is really noticeable in these long-" "JORDEN!" yelled the teacher, "ARE YOU BEING PAID TO ADVERTISE FIREBOLTS? GET ON WITH THE COMMENTARY!"

There was another moment of silence between them before Karma when to get up again, _"There's no point in staying here. I'm going to go see our new friend, I'm sure that Maehara and Itona could use a break."_ Chiba had no intention of stopping him but suddenly three Demontors walked onto the field. Both stood on their guard but before they could do anything Potter cast a Patronus before catching the Snitch. Madam Hooch blew the whistle to end the game.

Chiba had to admit that that was pretty awesome. Potter didn't even look after he shot the spell, he just kept going. If wondered how Potter would have done in the Assassination Classroom.

Karma almost laughed when he saw that the 'Demontors' had been those Slytherin boys standing on each others shoulders and dressed in black. Professor McGonagall rushed over to them to make sure that they were OK before yelling at them.  
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That night Maehara and went over to Nagisa to talk about what happened with Black today. Black had wanted to watch the game, and Nagisa had wanted to go the forest to train but neither of them got to do what they wanted.

 _"Pettigrew is still missing."_ said Nagisa. Maehara looked at him. Around them, the rest of the Gryffindors were celebrating their victory but Nagisa seemed to be far away. Maehara felt like he was more dangerous than ever right now.

At this moment, he was staring at Weasley. Maehara was thought that he was probably thinking that since Pettigrew had been using Weasley for a long time to hide. it might try to hide with him again. It would be a stupid move on his part but it was possible.

Suddenly Weasley said loudly, "If Scabbers hadn't just been eaten, he could have had some of those Fudge Flies. He used to really like them" The girl he had been fighting with, Granger, burst into tears and left up the stairs. Afterward, Potter walked up to Weasley, probably to speak with him about it.

McGonagall Sensei came into the room at one in the morning, she made everyone go to bed. Maehara touched Nagisa on the shoulder, leaned close and whispered, " _Come on, it's not the time for this."_ He left him after that, and went to bed.

Nagisa couldn't sleep, something was wrong and he knew it. He lay in the darkness listening and thinking. He could hear the breathing of everyone in the room. His thoughts kept going in circles. If they didn't caught Pettigrew he could go to Voldemort, causing even more trouble for Potter and Black would be doomed.

He heard someone walking around in the dark. Quietly he slipped past his own curtains and hide himself in the shadows. A man, probably Black, was in the room. Nagisa stood fully and walked to him.

He stuck out his finger and poked in him the back. He was well aware that doing to would have more of an effect then if someone else did it. He watched as Black stiffened for only a second before he turned quickly and brought the knife down. Nagisa stepped backward so that the knife missed him.

The look on Black's face was one of horror. Nagisa guests that he didn't mean to attack him. "Gender, what are you doing?" he asked. "That is an interesting question, considering where we are." Nagisa answered. Black looked around the room quickly, "I know he is here. I saw him come in." Nagisa shook his head, "You've doomed yourself with you own recklessness."

Black looked like he was going to say something but it was then that something scurried across the floor. It was a rat that ran through the curtains to someone's bed. Black ripped the curtain aside and raised his knife. Nagisa acted quickly and hugged him around the waist. He was about to attack Pettigrew who was on top of Weasley.

Pettigrew ran away while he was doing this. "What are you doing!" Black hissed at him. "Not this way." He said into his back. As Weasley's eyes started to flutter open he turned and ran, pulling Black's hand with him. "AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he could hear Weasley yell as he slipped out the window.

He decided that right now his best option was to go to the forest. He needed to get out of there now. Black turned into a dog and ran ahead of him as soon as they got to the ground.  
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Harry, Ron, and Jorden all sprinted out of the dormitory and down the stair case, leaving the doors open behind them. Several of the other students had been awakened because of all the commotion. "Who shouted?" What're you doing?" questions were thrown around.

The room still had the mess from the party but there was no one in there. "Are you sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?" asked Jorden. "I'm telling you, I saw him!" Ron defended. People were starting to appear on the stairs, "What's all the noise?" "Professor McGonagall told us to go to bed!" some of the students called.

"Excellent, are we carrying on?" cheered Fred. "Everyone back upstairs!" called Percy harshly, pining his Head Boy badge to his pajamas. "Percy - Sirius Black!" Ron said "In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!" Percy looked startled, "Nonsense!" he denied, "You had too much to eat, Ron, had a nightmare"

Percy could see that some of the students were getting nervous at this. The transfer students started to gather and were whispering harshly to each other. "I'm telling you-" "Now, really, enough's enough!" Percy said finally.

Professor McGonagall entered the room, slamming the portrait behind her, and looked around the room. She was clearly very angry. "I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous!" she looked up to where Percy was standing on the stairs, "Percy, I expect better of you!"

Percy looked defensive. "I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor! I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare-" Anger colored Ron's face, "It wasn't a nightmare!" he yelled, "Professor, I woke up, and Sirius Black was standing over me, holding a knife!"

She just stared at him before saying, "Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?" she tried to reason. "Ask him!" Ron pointed at Sir Cadogan. "Ask him if he saw-" he stopped when he saw her glaring at him.

She opened the portrait again and walked outside. The whole common room was listening intensively as she investigated. "Sir Cadogan," she addressed him, "did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?" "Certainly, good lady!" he said.

Everyone was pretty shocked by this. "You, you did? But, but the password!" Professor McGonagall said. Sir Cadogan stuck out his chest proudly, "He had 'em! Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!" Her face was very pale.

She walked slowly though the portal and looked across the stunned crowd. She was shaking, "Which person, which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"

A terrified squeak broke the silence. Neville Longbottom was trembling. He slowly raised his hand in the air.

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Draco and his friends probably have detention so Karma can't really interact with them this time but don't worry, he'll meet up with them later.


	17. An unexpected Opportunity or Snapes grud

I was going to try and go back and forth between what was going on with Team E and Harry's group but I think that from now on I'll focus mostly on Team E.

"English"

 _"Japanese"_

 **"Parsoltongue"**

Chapter 14 - An Unexpected Opportunity or Snape's Grudge

As the castle was being searched, they teachers realized that Nagisa was missing. Professor McGonagall came back to the common room at dawn, after the teachers had been searching all night. She looked more tired than she should, like she had just aged another 10. She informed them that Black had escaped and that Nagisa gone.

The day after, Sir Cadogan was fired and the fat lady was back. There seemed to be extra security everywhere. Since The Fat Lady was so nervous, a group of security trolls had been hired to guard her. Every time Harry walked through the corridor, he would come across the group of troll who talked in grunts and compared their clubs.

There were some groups of people that were praying that Nagisa was somewhere safe but many of them set up memorials for him. It was obvious that Black had killed him and probably hid the body away or maybe he was kidnapped and tortured for information because he was awake at the wrong time.

The weird part was that none of the other transfer students wanted to take part in this. Some of them seemed a little worried but others didn't seem to care at all; Harry thought that they were call pretty close but he supposed that he was wrong. Karma, that Slytherin guy, even thought that it was funny.

Neville had been punished severally. Not only was he given detention but he was also forbidden from visiting Hogsmeade again. Professor McGonagall had also forbidden anyone to give him the password to the common room. He had to wait outside the common room until someone would let him in. Although with worst was yet to come.

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Dumbledore paced his office floor. How could this have happened? Sirius not only broke into Gryffindor tower, but also took one of the students. He shook his head, none of this made any sense. It felt like there was something else going on and it involved the transfer students. Not just one of them, most if not all of them.

It seemed like he was getting clues here and there but nothing solid enough so figure anything out. Karma seemed to be involved somehow, or he wanted to be. This was troubling because he had the type of leverage to be able to do something serious. He had to do something quickly, to save both of them.

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Nakamura walked calmly though the forest on her way to the shack. It had only been a day but the whole school was in an uproar about Nagisa being missing. She thought that she was probably the first one to get there, aside from Nagisa, of course.

She didn't think that he planned this out but she thought he would do something like this if Karma asked him to. It was weird because this wasn't the plan that Karma had told them about.

She walked into the cabin to find Black watching Nagisa, who was asleep in a chair. "So," she stated, startling him a little, "watching him is a little creepy. I'm just saying, you might want to try and find another hobby." He looked up at her with a deep sadness in his eyes. "How does someone become like this? He's so small and young, how did he become so deadly? What had to have happened in his life to make him like this?" he asked.

"N- I mean Gender hasn't had the easiest life." she tried to explain, "He had to learn to read people and when we began assassination training his ability to read people just transferred really well." "You seem far to young to go through assassination training." he stated.

She put a finger on his chin and thought about how to explain it the best she could without revealing too much about themselves. "We were put into a situation where it was our only option." He looked concerned about this, "We thought that we were doing the right thing, that if we could kill him we could save the world." She sighed, "In the end it didn't really matter."

"What do you mean by that?" he asked. She smiled and waved her hands in front of her face, "Nothing, never mind."

She was trying to think of a way to get out of this conversation when Karma walked into the room. He was smiling like he had something up his sleeve. " _What's going on Karma?" "Everything is coming together so well."_ he replied. Black looked upset, "What is going on?"

Karma walked past him and over to Nagisa, " _How do you always do whatever is best even when you don't know it?"_ He asked quietly. Nagisa groaned and turned his head into the back of the seat.

Nakamura walked up beside Black and watched them. "What is happening?" he asked. She shook her head, "Something is really good happened for Karma." "What was it?" he pressed. She shrugged, "I don't know. He just said that something good happened. He's also really happy that Nagisa is here. This means that our plans are going to change."

Karma turned to them, "Can't you see that with Nagisa here, he can have complete freedom to do whatever he wants. Now school won't get in the way." Nakamura nodded, "I guess that's true but there is a lot of ciaos in school right now because of this." she pointed out.

His smile turned into something more mischievous, "Then we just have to work a little more quickly." He looked around the room, "By the way, have you seen Okuda? I need her to make something for me." "What do you need?" Black asked. Karma shook his head, "That's not really important. It's just something I need to take care of with my house mates."

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Karma couldn't help but smile at how well his plan was coming together. He was sitting at the Slytherin table, far enough away from his targets so that there was no way that they could tell it was him that was doing this. He had Okuda make a special potion in the form of a tablet that would dissolve almost instantly in liquid. This tablet would cause extreme hunger, where the victim would not be satisfied with any amount of food. Of course it wouldn't last very long. He didn't want to cause permanent damage, they just needed to learn a lesson.

Chiba was waiting outside, in a tree quite a distance away, with a gun and the tablet loaded in the chamber. He was instructed shoot two tablets into the breakfast of the two Slytherin's that Karma had pointed out to him earlier. He had told Chiba to shoot when he saw a good opportunity or when Karma gave him the signal.

Karma didn't tell the other about this, he wanted to take care of those two himself, although he could see Hayami watching him carefully. He wasn't sure whether or not she knew about the plan. She and Chiba were pretty close but he wasn't the type to talk about plans easily. It was more likely that she just assume that something was up because he wasn't there.

He was almost certain that Malfoy would leave Crabbe and Goyle alone by the end of breakfast. They seemed to follow him most of the time but there were some occasions that he wanted to do things on his own.

As he thought about all this something happened. One of the kids from the Gryffindor table got a Howler. He ran out of the room but they could still hear the voice coming through the hall.

Karma's entire table burst out laughing at him. While they were paying attention to the Gryffindor table he gave the signal. It didn't really matter though. By the time he had given the signal the pellets had already landed in the right bowls with a splash but no one seemed to notice.

Karma left shortly after and waited in the main hall, where he had a good view of everything that was going on.

It seemed to take forever but those two were eventually kicked out of the dinning hall. As soon as that started to happen, he left for the Slytherin dorms.

He knew that they were going there, they had some food stashed away in their dorm room. He knew this because he had been in there before hand. He had bought a lot of cakes just for this purpose.

He was sitting in the corner of the common room when they came in. Ignoring him, they headed straight for their room. Silently he got up and followed them slowly.

The door was shut when he approached and there was a possibility that it would be locked but he didn't think it was. They probably forgot in their hunger. Besides, these weren't exactly the brightest students at Hogwarts.

It wouldn't matter anyway. He knew how to pick locks, with and without magic. Although, if he did that they would hear him and it would ruin the effect.

He turned the handle slowly and slipped inside. They were so busy digging in the food that they didn't notice him at all. He thought that it would be a good idea to walk around behind them so that when they did finally notice him it would look like he just appeared behind them.

He leaned back to against the wall and said, "You guys seem pretty hungry." They turned to him in surprise. "When did you get here?" said Goyle in surprise, his mouth was full of food. "Aren't you missing class?" Karma ignored the question. "You are too." Argued Crabbe.

He smiled darkly at them. They look confused and concerned, now was the prefect time mess with them. "Didn't you just get done with breakfast? Or maybe you just really like eating." Crabbe shook him, "It's not like that. I don't know what's going on, I just can't stop eating." "I've eaten so much but I feel like I'm going die of starvation."

Karma walked around them slowly, "Perhaps you like enjoy cake the most, after that's what you seem to be stuffing his face with." He was planning on teasing them for a while but he was starting to become impatient. "That's not it." Crabbe defended. "Isn't that what happened just a couple weeks ago? There was a little Ravenclaw girl with a cake and you took it."

Crabbe looked like he was trying to remember but Goyle said, "I remember that. She got mad but didn't cry like I thought she would. She just made a face and trotted off." "I remember," said Crabbe, "that cake didn't even taste very good."

Karma frowned at them. All sense of teasing left him; he got very angry at them. He thought it best to wrap this up for now before he really hurt them. It was like they were making fun of her. "That was a mistake." he said quietly. "What was that?" said Goyle. Karma shook his head, "That's wasn't yours. It was mine. Okuda made that for me and you took it." He continued at walk around them with his hands behind his back. "Besides that, she is a friend of mine." They looked a little confused, like someone from Slytherin couldn't be friends with Ravenclaw.

"I decided that since you messed with her, I would enjoy watching you suffer as well." He said, watching their faces. Crabbe dropped his cake, "You did this to us!?" They both stood and glared at him aggressively. They thought that they were going to intimidate him, the thought was laughable. He walked until the door was right behind him. "Maybe." he said lazily standing in from of them. Despite his anger at him he make sure that everything about his posture was relaxed.

He shrugged, "Hm, I'm done with you. I'll leave you to explode like an over-filled balloon." He made to leave the room when one of them grabbed his shoulder. Instead of giving any sort of reaction he simply rolled his shoulder and twisted his body while walking out.

He was certain that he wasn't going to get into any trouble. There was no way that they could trace this back to him and even if those two told on him, he could use his family's position to get out of anything.  
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Remus was walking through the castle, thinking about what had happened recently. He never thought that Sirius would kidnap one of the student. Nagisa always seemed to be such a quiet student, hanging back from back from the others. That was probably how he was able to get away with him.

But it didn't make sense. Why would he take him, unless he confused him for Harry? But he and Harry were so different, not only in personality but also in looks. Nagisa was one of the smallest in his year.

On his way to the Quidditch field for a nice evening stroll he saw Hagrid was waiting at the bottom of the stairs at the entrance hall, looking like he was waiting for someone. "Good evening Hagrid." he waved at he walked down the stairs. "Evenin' Professor" Hagrid said in return.

It was a little odd to be called Professor by him. Hagrid was working at the school when he was a student.

"What's going on?" Remus asked. "Jus' waiting for Harry and Ron. Gonna take em for out for a bit of tea. Thought I'd walk em so they don' get in trouble." He answered. Remus nodded. "That's good. With all this chaos that's going on it might be good for them to get out for a little. I sure that you will keep them safe" "O' course. I was thinkin' the same thing. They're still mad at Hermine and I know it's not my business but I think it might be a good idea say something. It's just a pet and people mean more."

It was a wonderful thing to hear from him. Hagrid had always been very involved with his pets but even to someone like him people mean more. It was a lesson that they need to know. Especially Ron.

"I'm glad you're the one teaching this lesson." said Remus quietly. Hagrid looked a little surprised. "Ya think. I don' know about that." Remus smiled at him, "I'm serious Hagrid, you are the best person for this." "Thank ya professor." he responded.

Hagrid looked so happy at this, he was practically glowing. Remus was glad that he could make Hagrid feel good about himself. He was a good man and he deserved more respect that he got.  
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Originally Okuda's goal was to distract Snape Sensei but she had grown to enjoy his company. She enjoyed with fact that he was very knowledgeable about the subject and when he spoke he was always very to the point.

Most days she would go to his office after all the other classes were finished. He would sit at his desk grading papers or read while she studied on her own. If there was something she didn't understand or got something wrong he would correct her.

Occasionally they were talk about the different types of potions. Sometimes they would meet up in Hogsmeade and talk about the different things that they could put into potions and what would happen to different potions depending on the ingredients.

Saturday morning, Okuda was walking through hallways on her way to meet up with the rest of the group to go to Hogsmeade. On her way to the great hall she saw Snape sensei walking the other way.

She gave him a slight bow and said, "Good morning Snape Sensei." He glanced at her, "Good morning." he said quickly as he passed. She thought about moving on for a moment but she didn't want to miss him today. There was nothing going on with Team E she was hoping that she could study with him today, or at least go through some thought games with him instead of going to Hogsmeade this week.

She followed him in silence to one of the places in the third corridor where Karma had pointed out there was a secret tunnel. She had never used that one but she wouldn't be surprised if Karma and even Potter had. This was something that she took note of to tell the others later.

Around the corner she could hear a vaguely familiar voice, "Great, you can help me! I don't understand that thing about the garlic at all. Do they have to eat it, or-" He gasped at she came around the shoulder.

Longbottom and Potter were talking when they say them. "And what are you two doing here? An odd place to meet-" Snape Sensei mentioned. He had a good look around before Potter said, "We're not...meeting here. We just...met here." "Indeed?" Snape Sensei obviously didn't believe him. "You have a habit of turning up in unexpected places, Potter, and you are very rarely there for no good reason..." He pointed out. "I suggest the pair of you return to Gryffindor Tower, where you belong." he suggested.  
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Chiba and Hayami had spent quite a bit of time in Honeydukes. When they went outside they saw something odd, footprints appearing in the snow. _"Grab it."_ Hayami mumbled to him. He watched her take out her wand under her cloak and prepare to attack.

However, whatever it was walked over to Weasley and bumped into him. Weaslely started talking to it in a friendly manner so they supposed that meant that it wasn't dangerous. " _We should find out what that it."_ said Hayami. Chiba nodded, " _It's probably Potter but we should find out for sure." "Probably, Potter has a history of putting himself in danger. Being invisible might make this easier for him."_

They followed them to the post office and then to Zonko's. There was a huge crowd there and they had to split up to make sure that they could keep them in sight.

However after that they were considerable harder to follow. They climbed up the slope to overlook the Shack, Chiba and Hayami used the few trees hide themselves. _"Should we do something?"_ said Hayami. Chiba had to think about this. " _Only if they start to go down there."_

"Even the Hogwarts ghosts avoid it." Weasley explained. "I asked Nearly Headless Nick.. he says he's heard a very rough crowd lives there. No one can get in. Fred and George tried, obviously, but all the entrances are sealed shut..."

Chiba and Haymi considering going back since there was no worries about them going in but as soon as they decided to do so others showed up. " _Aren't those they boys that were picking on Okuda?"_ Hayami asked. Chiba nodded, " _It looked like Karma didn't mess them up that badly."_

The blond in the middle was speaking, "...Should have an owl from Father any time now." he was bragging. "He had to go to the hearing to tell them about my arm...about how I couldn't use it for three months..." The other boys snickered at his statement. The boy continued, "I really wish I could hear that great hairy moron trying to defend himself... 'There's no 'arm in 'im 'onest-' ... That Hippogriff's as good as dead-"

When the Slytherin boy noticed Weasley he smirked at him. "What are you doing, Weasley?" He glanced at the shack. "Suppose you'd love to live here, wouldn't you, Weasley? Dreaming about having your own bedroom? I heard your family all sleep in one room. Is that true?"

Wealsey looked like he was ready to hit him but the invisible person grabbed the back of his robe. Chiba and Hayami watched as the invisible person moved around so that he was standing behind the Slytherin boys and scoop up a handful of mud and rolled it into a ball.

"We were just discussing your friend Hagrid. Just trying to imagine what he's saying to the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures." the boy in the middle taunted him, "D'you think he'll cry when they cut off his Hippogriff's-" The mud hit his head before he could continue. "What the-?" he asked in confusion while the other two look around wildly.

 _"That was a nice shot."_ Chiba whispered. Hayami nodded in agreement.

Weasley was laughing at him so hard that he had to hold onto the fence behind him to falling. The Slytherin in the middle turned to him fiercely, "What was that? Who did that?" Ron grinned, "Very haunted up here, isn't it?" The Slytherin boys looked nervous at that, staring down at the Shack. " _If they see anything move down there they might think it's a ghost."_ Hayami mentioned.

They watched as the invisible person move slowly down the path and throw more mud balls at them. "It came from over there?" shouted the one in the middle, pointing in the wrong direction. One of the boys next to him moved towards him with his arms held out in front of him but the invisible person moved around him and picked up a stick and throw it at his back.

Weasley was was still laughing at him and so the Slytherin boy started to him but the invisible person tripped him. Unfortunately he caught on the invisible persons cloak and relieved Potter's face.

When the Slytherin boy saw Potter's face he yelled and the three of them ran away. Chiba and Hayami took that opportunity to leave as well.  
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When Harry got back to the third floor corridor he tucked his cloak under his arm and ran it in the direction of the Gryffindor tower only to run into Snape. "So," he said, looking over him. Harry tried his best to look innocent, hiding his muddy hands in his pockets. "Come with me, Potter." He followed Snape into his office. He was trying to wipe his hands on the inside of his robes while Snape wasn't looking.

In his office there was a Ravenclaw girl, one of the transfer students, concentrating hard on a book, taking notes every now and then. He guessed that she was in detention. He looked around the room, he had only been here once before. Since then he had add a couple more slimy things in jars behind his desk.

"Sit," said Snape sharply. It looked like he had forgotten about that girl. Harry didn't want to sit though so he remain standing. Snape said, "Mr. Malfoy has just been to see me with a strange story, Potter." Snape paused but Harry didn't say anything. "He tells me that he was up by the Shrieking Shack when he ran into Weasley, apparently alone."

The girl in the office looked up at that, like she was curious but Harry didn't say anything.

"Mr. Malfoy states that he was standing talking to Weasley, when a large amount of mud hit him in the back of the head." Snape continued, "How do you thing that could have happened?" Harry tried to give him a surprised look. "I don't know, Professor." Harry said innocently.

Snape tried to stare him down but Harry didn't blink. "Mr. Malfoy then saw an extraordinary apparition. Can you imagine what it might have been, Potter?" Harry tried to sound innocently curious, "No." "It was your head, Potter. Floating in midair." Snape informed him.

Neither of them said anything for a bit. "Maybe he'd better go to Madam Pomfrey," Harry suggested. "If he's seeing things like-" The Ravenclaw girl giggled quietly before Snape interrupted. "What would your head have been doing on Hogsmeade, Potter?" he said softly. "Your head is not allowed in Hogsmeade. No part of your body has permission to be in Hogsmeade."

I know that," Harry defended. "I sounds like Malfoy's having Hallucin-" "Malfoy is not having hallucinations," Snape snarled, bending down so that their faces were far to close for comfort. "If your head was in Hogsmeade, so was the rest of you." "I've been up in Gryffindor Tower, like you told-" Can anyone confirm that?" Snape cut him off.

Harry said nothing as Snapes smiled maliciously. "So," he stood at full height, "Everyone from the Minister of Magic downward has been trying to keep famous Harry Potter safe from Sirius Black." He taunted him, trying to get a rise out of him but he stayed quiet. Snape didn't have any proof yet. "But famous Harry Potter is a law unto himself. Let the ordinary people worry about this safety! Famous Harry Potter goes where he wants to, with no thought for the Consequences."

"How extraordinarily like you father you are, Potter." Snape said, "he too was exceedingly arrogant. A small amount of talent on the Quidditch field made him think he was a cut above the rest of us too. Strutting around the place with his friends and admirers... The resemblance between you is uncanny." Before Harry could stop himself he said, "My dad didn't strut. And neither do I."

Snapes continued anyway, "Your father didn't set much store by rules either. Rules were for lesser mortals, not Quidditch Cup-winners. His head was so swollen-" "SHUT UP!" Harry shouted, rising to his feet. He hadn't felt this angry since his last night at his Uncles house. Snapes face had gone rigid, "What did you say to me, Potter?"

"Sir," said the Ravenclaw girl almost too quietly to hear, "may I leave?" Harry had forgotten about her. It seemed like Snape did to. He glanced her way briefly and raised his hand in the air flippantly as she packed away her things.  
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Almost all morning Remus was trying to get rid of this particular student. Karma Akabane had insisted on spending time with him and asking questions. It seemed like his was trying to get a rise out of him but he wasn't going to let that happen. Right now he was sitting on the back of the chair with his feet on the seat so that he was looking down on Remus.

He looked up at Karma with a glare, he was trying to be calm but now he was starting to loose his patience. "Lupin!" called a sharp voice from the fire place, I want a word!"

"I'm have to go now," he address Karma. In return, Karma just shrugged, like he didn't care.  
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Nagisa didn't wake until the evening again. He had spent almost a week and a half out there. The more time he spent away from school, the more he found that he liked being up at night. He would do school work in the forest and send it with Chikako.

He was curled up on the chair that he had been sleeping on for for the last couple of days, Yochi was wrapped around his chest. He blinked a couple of times and rubbed his eyes, before looking around to get his bearings. Black was sitting at the window, looking into the forest. Nagisa set Yoshi on the chair and got up to walked over to him. It seemed like Black had gotten more used to him and no longer jumped every time he came close.

"We're not any closer to getting him." Black said quietly. Nagisa felt like he couldn't argue. He didn't agree with that statement but he didn't think that he could say anything right now to help. "I'm going to go out for a while." Nagisa stated. "I don't think that Yoshi wants to go right now though so I'll leave him here." Black looked at him, "Why do you wait until night to go out?" Nagisa shrugged, "I don't know. I like the forest at night."

Nagisa breathed in the cold night air. He listened at the snow crunched under his feet. He heard something move to the side. He glanced over in the direction to see the leg a giant spider move away. There was a sliver of fear within him but he was confident that he could survive out here. On the mountain he had spend a lot of time in the forest. It was comfortable here.

He moved in the other direction and started walking slowly toward the school. He didn't plan to go close enough to the school to be noticed but he did miss being around other people, normal people.

When he heard footsteps behind him, he turned quickly to find that Black had found him. "What are you doing right now?" Black whispered. Nagisa looked at him evenly and, in a normal voice, he said, "I'm taking a walk." He looked at the school, "If I'm found out, it wouldn't really cause any trouble for me right now. I don't want to go back yet but it would be a problem if I had to."

Nagisa continued walking in the direction of the castle. He thought that Black would go back back without him but he still followed him. He decided that he wasn't Black's babysitter. This man was an adult and he could make his own choices.

As he got near the Quidditch field he noticed a figure there. He lowered himself and hid his presence as much as he could. He watched at the figure revealed himself to be Lupin Sensei. Lupin Sensei was getting closer and closer.

Nagisa looked behind him when he realized that Black wasn't hiding very well. He was just staring at Lupin Sensei. "What are you doing?" Nagisa whispered harshly.

Black looked at him, almost like he was awakened from his thoughts. He took off in, quickly passing through the trees and bushes. Lupin Sensei followed him closely, passing right by Nagisa without noticing him at all.

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It's easy to forget that Team E is also doing school work with other schools as well so that they don't fall behind. To be honest, I had forgotten about this for a bit. It is one of the reasons that they are taking so long to find Pettigrew. They got a lot going on right now.


	18. Someone's Secret or The Quidditch Final

I promise I haven't given up on this story. It shouldn't take me this long for the next chapter...probably...yeah

English

 _Japanese_

 **Parseltongue**

Chapter 15 - Someone's Secret or The Quidditch Final

Nagisa waited until both men were out of sight before taking off after them. This was a really bad situation. He couldn't let Black get caught before he proved his innocence but the person chasing him was Lupin Sensei. He just prayed that Black had enough sense to lead him somewhere other than the Shack. He planned to run in another direction to cut them off.

While scanning the trees for any sign of movement he noticed something in the distance. He moved in that direction to find Granger's scraggily looking cat hissing at a large spider, the size of a large dog. It wasn't uncommon to see large spiders in the forest. He was certain that the spider was going to eat the cat.

The cat had been hanging around the woods for a while now. When Black turns into a dog, the cat liked to hang around him. It seemed to avoid Nagisa most of the time though.

He had to quickly make a decision, save the cat or help Black.

There was no way he could leave the cat when he was certain that it would die. He prayed that Black could take care of himself. He had to remember that Black did manage to avoid getting caught for years. He easily climbed up a tree and moved toward in that direction.

As he saw the spider come into view he launched himself onto the spider's back with a knife raised high. There was a crunch as one of the spider's bent the wrong way and snapped. The spider jerked around and he nearly threw him off but Nagisa held on tight to it's neck. The moment he had a chance he brought the knife down hard onto it's head. But the knife only went halfway in and it rolled to the ground but it still stopped moving.

He had to push the dead spider from him to get up. He was honestly surprised to see that the cat was still there. He knelt down and held out his hand, "Here kitty kitty." The cat just looked at him carefully and took a step back. "It's OK, come here." The cat lifted its head suddenly and ran away. He looked in the other direction as he heard the sounds of hoofs coming closer.

He stepped backward, thinking that he was going to run away but before he could a chestnut colored centaur stepped forward. "Human child, you are in a very dangerous place." Nagisa held his head high and stood at full height. "I am aware of where I am." The centaur narrowed his eyes, "You seem to think that you can handle this situation, human child, but you do not know what this place holds."

Nagisa looked at the dead spider and then back at the centaur. "I've been living in the Shrieking Shack for a while. I know what this forest holds." The centaurs face softened. "I see." He seemed to be thinking about something. "We've noticed that there was some movement in that area but did not know that it was a human child."

Nagisa tilted his head to the side, "Why did you not think to check it out?" he asked. The centaur smiled at him softly, "That place was created by the current Headmaster of the school for a student so it is not in our territory." Nagisa looked down in thought, "I see. May I ask for some assistance?" The centaur nodded. "What is it that you need?"

"There is a man named Sirius Black that was framed for a murder that he did not commit. We, my friends and I, are trying to prove his innocents but we need time. He is currently being pursued." Nagisa explained. The centaur looked at him critically for a moment, "Why do you think that we should help you with this?" "I have a no reason to think that you should help me. I just want to save an innocent man."

The centaur was obviously considering what he said. Nagisa gave him a short bow and made to move away when the centaur held out a hand in front of him. Nagisa stopped and looked up at him. "I will discuss this with the rest of the herd." he said. "Thank you, I appreciate your consideration."

As he went to leave once again when the centaur spoke again, "I am called Selcor." He raised a hand to his chest. Nagisa bowed again, "I am Nagisa." "We shall meet again." Selcor nodded before he trotted off.

Nagisa had almost forgotten what he was doing. Black needed help. He didn't know where Black was going and since he didn't have any clue where he might be, he decided to go to the Shack.

As he got close to the Shack he could hear a heated argument between Black and Lupin Sensei. "Where is Nagisa?" Nagisa closed his eyes for a moment before walking though the door. He walked behind Lupin Sensei, avoiding the boards that he knew would make noise. He was about to incapacitate him when Black noticed him. "Stop!"

Lupin Senei turned to face him. The anger on his face seem to melt into relief. "Nagisa! Thank god you're safe." He knelt to look Nagisa in the eye and reached his arms out to grab him by the shoulders. "I'm sorry I left but there is something out here that I need to do." He looked past Lupin Sensei to where Black was watching them.

"G- er, Nagisa has been helping me prove my innocence." Lupin Sensei stood to face him. "Your innocence?! You took a child out of the school for this?" All the anger that had faded away before was back, stronger than ever. Nagisa moved around him so that he was in between the two of them. "Black did not bring me here. I came here on my own." He placed his hands on Lupin Sensei's chest to stop him from moving forward. "We have found Pettigrew and he escaped us."

Lupin Sensei seemed shocked by this. "What are you talking about?" Black sighed, "I was set up. Peter was James and Lily's secret keeper and he betrayed them." Nagisa let his hands fall to his sides when he saw Granger's cat walk through the door. "He's been hiding as a pet rat."

It didn't look like they were going to fight anymore so Nagisa walked to the other side of the room. Once again he knelt close to the ground, held out his hand and said, "Here kitty kitty." The cat didn't come to him but it didn't run away either. He tried inching forward but it stiffened.

 **"Give up, that mangy thing isn't going to become your buddy."** Yochi had slithered in unnoticed. **"That's not very nice to say. I just want to know why it's all the way out here by itself. Normally pets don't do that." "Did you expect it to give you an answer? Oh my Nagisa, I didn't know that you could talk to cats as well."** Nagisa frowned at him but allowed him to wrap around his shoulders. Yochi laid his head down on Nagisa, **"The reason is staring at you."** He pointed to tip of his tail in the direction of Black and Lupin Sensei

"Black?" Nagisa accidently blurted out. "Nagisa," Lupin Sensei said carefully, "I didn't know that you are a Parseltongue." Nagisa nodded and turned to Black. "Black, has this cat come to visit you in the cabin often?" Black put a hand behind his neck and answered, "Sometimes, usually during the night. I think that you're normally asleep." **"You probably didn't notice because you sleep too much."** Yochi quipped. **"You're one to talk."** Nagisa whispered back.

"Why?" asked Black, "Is that important?" Nagisa shook his head, "No, I am simply curious." Nagisa cupped his hand around Yochi's head, **"Please tell the others that they are needed here immediately." "Fine,"** said Yochi, unwrapping himself from Nagisa, " **because apparently all you need me for is delivering messages." "Thank you."**

He stood again, "I am calling the others here so that we can discuss this situation." "Others?" asked Lupin Sensei. "Nagisa isn't alone. There are a bunch of children from Japan here that are trying to help." Black explained. "Some of the other exchange students are part of this?" Lupin Sensei asked. Nagisa nodded, "Yes, some of them."

He slipped outside and hoped that they wouldn't follow him. He didn't know how much he could keep from them but it might be a good idea to keep some things to themselves. He was hoping that he could ask some of them to hold back. The only problem was that they implied that there were more members of their team but Lupin Sensei knew all of them. He was sure that Karma would think of something.

Karma and Terasaka were the first to approach, arguing the whole time. _"Listen"_ Nagisa said quickly, " _Lupin Sensei followed Black to the Shack and is now waiting there. I didn't know whether we should introduce him to everyone as assassins." "Wait a moment."_ said Karma, " _How much of the situation does he know?"_

Nagisa had to think about this for a moment. He did explain what was going on with Black and Pettigrew but he didn't mention that they were hired. That didn't mean that Black didn't say anything. _"I didn't really tell him anything but I think that Black did."_ Karma nodded. " _Good."_ Karma said. " _Instead of looking suspicious, we'll introduce him to everyone."_ Nagisa frowned, but it seemed like the best idea so far.  
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Remus was enjoying his time with Sirius again. Sirius claimed that these children were actually assassins. While he had a hard time believing that, he didn't argue. He had been through a lot and it wasn't that weird that he could come up with something like this. Nagisa seemed calm about the situation and maybe he really was trying to help but he needed to get him back to the castle as soon as possible.

He had been gone for quite a while. It probably meant that he left, hopefully he when back to the castle. If he did, Black would have to move. Without any proof he would go back to Azkaban or, even worse, he would be given to the Dementors.

After a while some knocked on the door. "Come in," Sirius said, he sounded tired. The cat had jumped onto his lap. Nagisa was the first to enter. After them, the rest of the transfer students crowded into the room. Some moved to the bed, others stood near the window and some even sat on the floor. He tried to remember all of their names for he had forgotten some of them. Karma Akabane was the last to enter.

None of them seemed even remotely afraid of Sirius. In fact, they seemed really comfortable here, like they had been here before. They all watched in silence as Karma walked into the center of the room.

"Hello professor." he said, looking like he had something up his sleeve. "Hello Karma." Remus greeted him. Karma slowly glanced over at Sirius. "I trust that you have told him the entire situation." Remus looked over at Sirius who slowly nodded. "Because of a stupid rat," a dark look crossed his face, "we can't really do anything."

Remus thought about this for a moment before asking the first question that came to mind. "How did you know how to find him in the first place?" Karma looked like he was about to say something but miss Nakamura interrupted him with something. _"We're going to get in trouble if we tell a teacher about the map."_ Karma nodded, like he was agreeing with whatever she just said. "Ah," miss Okuda added. _"That might be so but if we keep things from him won't we be in more trouble?" "Maybe we can be forgiven if it is found out that we are trying to save him."_ said one of the boys whose name he had forgotten.

Sirius just closed his eyes as the students argued in Japanese for the next five minutes or so. Finally, they seemed to come to an agreement. Karma waited for everyone so settle down and go back to their seats before he stood up again. "We want to make sure that we aren't going to get into trouble for this." He gave Remus a serious look. Remus smiled at him and looked around the room. "Of course you're not going to get into trouble. What you did was very brave, all of you, although a little foolish."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw that cat jump from Sirius' lap and slink out of the room. One of the kids, Mr. Chiba, stood and left the room without a word. None of the others seemed to care or even pay attention.

"We had access to a special map that showed us the occupants of the school and the grounds that surrounded it." he said. Remus recognized what he was talking about immediately. "Are you talking about the Marauder's Map?" "What?" he heard Sirius ask quietly. Apparently he didn't know that they used this either. He had been a little curious about what had happened to it after he had left school.

Karma looked away, "Yeah, that's then name of the map we used." "But!" miss Nakamura sat up quickly, "We don't have it anymore." Remus nodded, he knew that the didn't have it. He had taken from Harry some time ago. He didn't know how they got it, but they must have given it to Harry at some point. "Why!?" asked Sirius.

They looked over at , some gave him a vaguely curious look and others just looked bored. "At the time," Karma answered him. "we didn't need it. It was just a useful tool that helped us from time to time. Besides that, we never said that we were the one's that were in possession of the map. We said that he had access to it."

Sirius sank further into his chair and put his face into his hand. "We need that map." "I suppose that we are in luck then." Remus said. As Sirius raised his head, Mr. Chiba walked in the door and whispered into Karma's ear. While they were whispering to each other, he addressed Sirius, "I happen to have the map in my possession. I haven't studied the map closely enough to notice anything weird but I clearly wasn't looking hard enough."

"Kimura, Kuroshi." Karma said sharply. The two of them nodded and followed Mr. Chiba out the door. "What's going on?" Remus asked. Instead of Karma answering, Megu stepped in. "We are monitoring the forest for unusual activity. Chiba must have found something."

"So," Karma drawled, "you're going to check the map and get back to us?" Remus wanted to take this responsibility from their shoulders. "Because," he smirked, "if you keep this from us, we'll just find another way. It was be really unfortunate if we ended up getting in each other's way."

What he said sounded like a threat, and maybe it was, but all the others were agreeing with him. He might have understood it if they were all Slytherin but these were students from all houses. Despite their clear differences in personalities, they seemed to work together seamlessly.

Remus gave in, "I'll see what I can do." Karma smiled at him, "Then we'll see what we can do."

Remus sighed. A little over a week had passed since then. He had looked over the map but he couldn't find Peter. Every now and then he could see Nagisa at the edge of the map, weaving in and out of the corners.  
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Hermione held out the letter. "He sent me this." Harry took the slightly damp, smudged letter. It read,

 _Dear Hermione,  
We lost.  
I'm allowed to bring him back to Hogwarts. Execution date to be fixed.  
Beaky has enjoyed London.  
I won't forget all the help you gave us.  
Hagrid._

Harry clinched his fist in anger, "They can't do this. They can't. Buckbeak isn't dangerous." Hermione was on the brink of crying. "Malfoy's dad's frightened the Committee into it." She wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes. "You know what he's like. They're a bunch of doddery old fools, and they were scared. There'll be an appeal, though, there always is. Only I can't see any hope... Nothing will have changed.

"Yeah, it will." Ron's face was fierce, "You won't have to do all the work alone this time, Hermione. I'll help" Hermione's face lit up, "Oh, Ron!" She hugged him around him and sobbed into his neck. He looked terrified and patted her awkwardly on top of her head.

After a while, she let go of him. "Ron, I'm really, really sorry about Scabbers..." she sobbed. "Oh, well, he was old." he rubbed the back of his neck. "And he was a bit useless. You never know, Mum and Dad might get me an owl now."  
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The Chiba and Hayami had just gotten out of Muggle Studies and were on their way to Care of Magical Creatures class. _"We aren't going to learn anything today either, not with the teacher so distracted."_ said Hayami. Chiba nodded, " _But you can't blame him though. There's a lot of things going on with him right now."_

As they make their way out to the courtyard when they heard the voices out some third year students. "Look at him blubber." It was some of the Slytherin students. "Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic? And he's supposed to be our teacher!"

Chiba and Hayami turned the corner to see Potter and his friends quickly approaching them. The girl got to them first and struck one of them in the face. "Don't you dare call Hagrid pathetic, you foul - you evil-" She was furious.

Weasely grabbed her hand as she went to strike him again. "Hermione!" he said weakly. She pulled her hand back, "Get off, Ron!" The Slytherin boy stepped back. "C'mon." he said, taking off with his friends with him.

Chiba and Hayami walked away them, not wanting to be late for class. In the distance they could hear Granger say something shrilly to the others. " _He deserved that."_ Hayami said.  
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It was just before lunch when Karma came up to Kimura, who was on his way to the Great Hall. _"I have a favor to ask."_ he said. Kirmura stopped walking, " _What do you need."_ Karma gave him a sly look, " _There's someone in your common room that I want to talk to but I can't get this person alone."_

Kimura gave him a skeptical look but shrugged his shoulders. _"The password is Flibbertigibbet. Hey Karma, if anyone finds out I gave you the password-"_ Karma clapped him on the shoulder. " _The only person that will notice my presence is the person that I'm going there for."_ They went separate directions.

Karma waited for the others to leave the portal and slipped in behind them. It was lucky that there was no one left in the room except for the person that he wanted to talk to.

Granger was sitting at the table, fast asleep on top of one of her books. He sat in front of her and lowered his head to her level and tapped her on top of the head. "Tut tut, sleeping during class time, are we?"

She blinked awake and looked him right in the eyes. She was so startled she fell out of her chair. "What are you doing here?" He gave he a feral grin. She stood up and looked around for someone else. "I was talking to some of my friends that they said that they were both in class with you at the same time." He leaned back in his chair and rested his hands behind his head.

"That's really weird," he continued, "because they're in different classes at the same time." She started repacking her back, not focusing on him at all. "That's ridiculous. How could I be in two places at the same time?"

"You're right, it would be ridiculous..." He watched her pause her a second before continuing focusing on the task at him, "unless you had some sort of tool to help you study, like a special clock or something." He almost laughed as she paled.

He shrugged his shoulders and started walk to the door. Even though she was trying to defend herself he didn't turn around. "I don't have any intention of saying anything. I just wanted to make sure I was right."

Karma had meant that. He knew that reveling her secret wouldn't do any good for either of them. However, its good information to have. If things got really bad, he could take it from her and use it. That would only be a worse case scenario.  
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 _"We have to hurry,"_ said Hayami. " _We're going to be late."_ Chiba sighed. They were on their way to Divination, a class that neither of them enjoyed. The only reason that the both of them still went to the class was because it was on their schedules and they felt that they had to.

" _We're probably going to fail."_ Chiba said quietly. Hayami gave him an annoyed look but didn't disagree. She knew that he was probably right. " _It's a stupid subject."_ She replied, " _I heard that even Granger walked out of the class."_  
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During the Easter holidays, everyone was busy with studying for the upcoming exams. With of all the other studying that Team E had to do, they didn't have very much time to do anything else. That included looking for Pettigrew.

Kaede was the only person with Nagisa in the Shack at the moment. There were a couple of others with Black out in the forest but they had left the two of them together. He was studying really hard and wasn't paying attention to her.

She wasn't really sure what to say. She bit her lip and looked off the side, " _The Quittitch final is tomorrow."_ She stated. He look up with a slightly distracted look. " _What did you say?"_ She smiled at him and said, " _I was just saying that the Quittitch final is tomorrow. It's a pretty big deal in the school."_

Nagisa smiled politely, _"Oh, yeah? Please tell me how it goes." "Of course."_ she smiled back. It felt like they were about to have a special moment when the door opened again, ruining whatever might had began.

Muramatsu and Terasaka came through the door, looking slightly disappointed. " _We didn't find anything but a Centaur did come up and started to talk to us."_ said Muramatsu. " _He told us that there wasn't anything odd going on in his territory. He also said that he wanted to talk to you."_

Nagisa looked startled for a moment. " _Oh,"_ He said suddenly, " _I had forgotten that I had talked to one of them a while ago. There was so much else going on at the time."_ Kaede touched him on the shoulder for a second, " _Are you going to talk to them?"_ Nagisa looked at her and nodded, " _Of course, there's no reason no to."_

Kaede and Nagisa turned to the door as they saw Black coming back. Terasaka, who was standing by the door, looked very irritated. _"You didn't you tell us earlier?"_ he growled. Black looked around the room, "What's going on?"

The other member of the team ignored him, " _I'm sorry. I forgot about it. I'll go talk to them later tonight, go tell the other members of the team."_

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Well, I know that chapter was called 'The Quittitch Final' but the quittitch match didn't really have any bearing on Team E's situation so didn't feel the need to put it in.

Professor Lupin calls some of Team E Mr. or miss and their last name because that is how they call each other. Also, I know that some of the details are wrong during their conversation with Lupin but that's because some of Team E is lying slightly.


	19. Changing Plans Again or Professor Tre

Chapter 16 - Changing Plans again or Professor Trelawney's Prediction

After the Quidditch cup ended, the entire Gryffondor house was feeling pretty good. And, since it seemed like most of the Sytherin house was in a foul mood, Karma decided that he could use this opportunity. Granger wasn't hard to find but she stuck close to her friends.

Normally that wouldn't be a problem but one of her friends, Potter, was close with the head master. They already didn't like him because he was part of the Slytherin house, he didn't have to do anything. This wouldn't be the smart thing to challenge the headmaster with.

Besides that, without the right context it looked like he was just picking on her. Which was ridiculous. She wouldn't be very fun to pick on, he needed someone who would fight back.

Karma frowned. She was already on edge because of the upcoming exams. He would have to tread carefully. He needed the right place to confront her and the right way to phrase things. If he did things wrong here, his entire plan would be ruined.

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Hermione had felt someone following her for the last couple days. There wasn't much time to think about things like that though. Exams were coming up and she'd worked to hard to start slacking now. Plus, Ron and Harry wouldnt get off her case about the schedule. She couldn't let them find out about that.

Somehow Akabane already had. He promised not to tell anyone but there was no way that she could trust him. He was probably saving it for a time that he could use it against her if he hadn't already told someone.

She sat with Ron and Harry during the Care of Magical Creatures exam, taking care of flobberworms.

Hagrid came over to them and leaned close to the worm, pretending to check on it. "Beaky's gettin' a bit depressed. Bin cooped up too long. But still... we'll know day after tomorrow, one way or the other."

She hoped desperately that Buckbeak would make it through this but his chances were slim at best.

They had Potions that afternoon and she thought that she could brush up on some things before the exam. She said goodbye to the others and started back to the dorms.

As she turned the corner, she bumped into someone dreadfully familiar. "oh, I'm sorry." Akabane said, there was no sincerity in his voice at all. He had a smile like he was up to something. "Excuse me." she said shortly, quickly passing him. She wasn't aware until then how empty the hallway was.

However he followed her. Not only did he caught up, he keep pace with her, even though she was walking quickly.

"So I heard a rumor." he tried to start a conversation. She ignored him. She didn't like gossip in the first place, she definitely wasn't going to gossip with a Slytherin. "I heard," he continued anyway, "that you hit Malfoy in the face."

She stopped dead in her tracks. This wasn't gossip, of course it wasn't. He was here to get back at her for that. He had waited until she was alone so she couldn't call for help.

She tried looking him in the eyes but couldn't, he was so intimidating. He was taller than she was, probably stronger to. But it was his eyes that scared her. He had a mischievous look to him, like he was capable of anything.

"Don't get the wrong impression." he said lightly, waving his hand in front of his face. "I think its pretty funny. That little brat thinks he has the whole world at his feet." He frowned and look out the window, like he was remembering something. "It would be good for someone to teach him some humility. He is smart enough to be great but he will never be what he could if this keeps up."

He turned back to her abruptly and smile again, "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something." He steppped closer, maker her step back until she bumped into the wall. She was on the verge of screaming for help.

"I was thinking about Nagisa. You see he was a dear friend of mine but, i don'tknow if you heard, he dissapeared in the middle of the night." he said with an exaggerated fake frown. "Its a shame, he probably dead or worse by now. " He didn't sound sad at all. "What a terrible thing to say!" Hermione exclaimed. "It's a shame we have no way of preventing that." he continued. "If only we already knew that was going to happen, after all we already know when and where it all happened and that no one else was around at the time..." he trailed off.

She finally realized what he was saying. She made an oath, if she used the timeturner for something like that she would be in so much trouble. "What are you talking about? I couldn't do something like that."

"Do you want to do some good, be a hero? Maybe save a life or two?" He smile more gently and started walking away, "The choice is yours, of course."

What he was saying was good but the way he said it made him seem like a bad guy. When she got back to her dorm she could hardly keep her mind on studying, she kept think about what he said.

He didn't talk to her again for a while. She saw him speak breifly to some of the other transfer students and after that they all left him alone. In fact, he even started distancing himself from other Slytherins.

She didn't want to think about him though, she had the tests to worry about now.

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Chiba and Hayami both breathed a sigh of relief. That test was over and they were free to go back to the dorm. They only had a few more days of this. Tests from Hogwarts were bad enough but the other school was hell too.

"What did Karma mean when he said to leave him alone?" Hayami asked. Chiba bearly lifted his shoulders. "He wants someone to talk to him but it needs to be in private so he's giving them the opportunity. " She glanced over at him. "That's not much of an answer." "Its the only one i have."

They walked together in silence, taking detours around the school. There wasn't any reason, it was just nice to be around each other. "Do you think that Karma was the best person to meet with Fudge today?" asked Chiba. Hayami rested her knuckles agaist her mouth in thought. "In terms of the mission, he knows more than any of us, even Nagisa. But I understand what you're saying. The thing is, we dont know Fudge or how he might react." "I guess we'll just have to wait and see." she nodded to him, "I suppose you're right. "

After a short pause and a sigh she said, "We are running out of time. We need to finish this." He smirked at her, "Its a bit nostalgic, isnt it?" "What?" "The deadline. looming closer and theres nothing we can do." She grimised. "I don't excatly want to remember that feeling. "

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Cornelius had arrived in Hogsmeade village on Wednesday evening. Officially, he was there to oversee the disposal of a Hippogriff but there was another reason.

It was going to be the first time he met these assassin children. There was no official meeting but there were both going to be there. Since they were posing as transfer student it wouldn't be weird for him to go up and talk to one of them. In fact, it might be weird if he didn't. He had heard that one of them went missing so several of the parents took their children out of school. He felt he should give his condolences.

In all honesty, he didnt know what to expect at all. He had only met a couple of hit-wizards, and that was years ago. They were all quiet and mysterious but these were children. If they acted like that, they would stick out like a sore thumb.

He went to the school a little earlier than the others and headed to the headmasters office but was told he was busy and should make himself at home. It was one of the only times that he was thankful for Dumbledores rude actions.

Almost all of the older students were busy with tests at the time so he took his time, meandering through the halls. "Hello minister" said an accented voice behind.

He turned to see a red headed boy he assumed was one of the assassins. "Hello there young man. Who might you be?" The boy gave him an impatient loom. "Are you serious right now? Nevermind mind. Listen, I actually have a request. The Hippogriff is going to die anyway right? What would happen if it disappeared? You could ne shocked and launch a halfhearted investigation and we would have a useful tool." He stepped closer and Cornelius looked around to make sure that no one was around.

Cornelius was shocked at the request. "What are you talking about?" The boy smiled at him, "That doesn't matter. It's not important. I didn't really think you would agree anyway."

"We are really close but we need just a little more time. I think I can get exactly what we need but you need to be patient with us." He looked really relaxed, like he didn't just ask the most ridiculous thing.

He thought about that for a moment. He couldn't afford to be patient right now. If another incident like what happened with that other boy were to occur, not only the school, but the whole ministry would be in trouble. He couldn't afford something like that. It was his mistake for hiring children. What was he thinking?

"I'm sorry," he answered the boy, "but there is no more time. I am so sorry for your loss but I can't allow you to contine this. when I return I will pull you and your team from the mission. You can carry on your life as normal." The boy's face shifted into something almost frightening. "Do you not listen?" He said quietly, emphasising his anger even more. "I just said we almost have him. Just a little more."

Before he had a chance to refute him again two men came around the corner; neither knew about these children. "We can speak about this later." he said, hoping that this kid would get the message. He smirked, "That's not going to happen. It doesn't matter if you want to help, we have our own way of doing things." He turned to leave and lifted his hand, "Thank you for your condolences." he said loudly.

He was going to make every effort to find out how this child was. An assassin with this type of personality could be very dangerous.

"You are being very kind," said a very feeble voice behind him. The representative of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous creatures and the strong executioner had walked to them. Cornelius nodded, "Well, in these troubling times the students need to see that the Ministry hasn't forgotten about them." It was the first thing that came to his mind.

They headed out the courtyard, on the way to Hagrid's hut.

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Harry's last exam was Divination. Hermioine had already left them to on the first floor to do the her last exam, Muggle Studies. Divination was on the seventh floor. He and Ron joined several of the others sitting on the spiral staircase. Many of them were trying to do some last minute studying. Kaide, one of the other transfer students, was looking out the window longingly. She seemed to have been close with Nagisa.

He couldn't imagine what she was going though. To think that Sirius Black was powerful enough to get in here with anyone noticing was scary enough but he also took one of the students. It was still a terrible thought. He wanted to believe that Nagisa was still alive but he doubted it.

He sat down next to Neville, who had his copy of Unfogging the Future open on his lap. "She's seeing us all separately." he said, he looked very unhappy, "Have either of you ever seen anything in a crystal ball?" "Nope." Ron said flippantly. Harry was thinking about Buckbeaks appeal, it was going to start this afternoon.

The line was slowly moving forward and, after each person climbed down the ladder the others would ask them what had happened but no one would say anything. Finally, after Neville came down, he said, "She says the crystal ball's told her that if I tell you, I'll have a horrible accident!" as he passed them. Ron snorted, "That's convenient. You know, I'm starting to think Hermione was right about her." He stuck her thumb in the direction of the trap door. "She's a right old fraud." Harry agreed absently, looking at his watch. It was 2 o'clock. "Wish she'd hurry up...'

Parvati came down, absolutely glowing, "She says I've got all the makings of a true Seer. I saw loads of stuff...Well, good luck!" Harry couldn't help but wonder if she really saw things or only saw them because she wanted to. "Ronald Weasley," came the professor's wispy voice.

He was only up there for about 20 minutes, although if felt like much longer. When Harry was him, he stood up. "How'd it go?" "Rubbish. Couldn't see a thing, so I made some stuff up. Don't think she was convinced, though..." He answered. "Meet you in the common room." said Harry as his name was being called.

As he entered the tower room a wave of heat hit him, hotter than before. The curtains were closed and the fire was lit brightly. He coughed at the sickly scent that wafted though the air. Professor Trelawney was sitting behind a large crystal ball with a scroll sitting on her knees. "Good day, my dear." she spoke softly. "If you would kindly gaze into the Orb.. Take your time, now... then tell me what you see within it..."

He walked over to the crystal and stared as hard as he could, hoping that he would see something. Unfortunately, he couldn't see anything but white fog. "Well?" she asked "What do you see?" He thought that he might be able to fake his way though.

"Er-" he was trying to think about something. "a dark shape...um..." She leaned forward, "What does it resemble?" she whispered, "Think, now..." Buckbeak was the first thing that came to mind. "A Hippogriff." he said decidedly.

"Indeed!" she whispered excitedly, as she scribbled something on the parchment. "My boy, you may well be seeing the outcome of poor Hagrid's trouble with the Ministry of Magic! Look closer... Does the Hippogriff appear to ...have its head?" "Yes," he said firmly. He didn't even want to think about that. "Are you sure?" she pressed. "Are you quite sure, dear? You don't see it writhing on the ground, perhaps, and a shadowy figure raising an axe behind it?"

"No!" The way she was talking was making him feel a little sick. "No blood? No weeping Hagrid?" she leaned closer. "No!" he wanted to leave this room so badly, his head was swimming because of the heat and the smell in the air. "It looks fine, it's...flying away..."

The Professor sighed. "Well, dear, I think we'll leave it there...A little disappointing...but I'm sure you did your best dear." He was relieved to be able to leave. He picked up his bag and was getting ready to leave when a loud, gravely voice spoke.

"IT WILL HAPPEN TONIGHT." He turned to see Professor Trelawney and gone rigid, her mouth had gone slack and her eyes were unfocused. "S-sorry?" Harry asked. She didn't acknowledge him but her eyes started to roll in her head. Harry didn't know that what to do, he just sat there in panic. She was apparently having some sort of seizure. He thought of going to the hospital wing when she spoke again.

"THE DARK LORD LIES ALONE AND FRIENDLESS, ABANDONED BY HIS FOLLOWERS. HIS SERVANT HAS BEEN CHAINED THESE TWELVE YEARS, NOW CHASED BY CHILDREN OF DARKNESS. TONIGHT, BEFORE MIDNIGT...THE SERVANT WILL BREAK FREE AND SET OUT TO REJOIN HIS MASTER. THE DARK LORD WILL RISE AGAIN WITH HIS SERVANT'S AID, GREATER AND MORE TERRIBLE THAN EVER HE WAS. TONIGHT...BEFORE MIDNIGHT...THE SERVANT...WILL SET OUT...TO REJOIN...HIS MASTER..."

Her head fell forward onto her chest and she made some grunting noises. Harry just sat there, trying to figure out what he just heard. Suddenly her head snapped up. "I'm so sorry, dear boy" she said in her dreamy voice, "the heat of the day, you know... I drifted off for a moment..." Harry just sat there and stared at her. She was acting like she didn't just say something very strange.

"Is there anything wrong, my dear?" she asked. "You..you just told that the...the Dark Lord's going to rise again...that his servant's going to go back to him." She looked truly startled. "The Dark Lord? He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? My dear boy, that's hardly something to joke about... Rise again, indeed-"

"But you just said it! You said the Dark Lord-" "I think you must have dozed off too, dear!" she definded, "I would certainly not presume to predict anything quite as far-fetched as that!"

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At Hermione's suggestion, the three of them snuck out to see Hagrid before the Hearing. When he answered the door, he obviously couldn't see anyone. Harry leaned close to the door. "It's us." Harry whispered, "We're wearing the Invisibility Cloak. Let us in and we can take it off." "Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid whispered back harshly, but he stepped out of the way.

Hagrid wasn't crying this time. Instead, he looked lost and helpless to do anything, like he wasn't sure what he should do from here. Seeing him like this was even worse than watching him sob.

He was shaking as he reached for the milk jug. "Wan' somethin' to drin'?" "Where's Buckbeak, Hagrid?" said Hermione hesitantly. Hagrid was spilling milk all over the table. "I..I took him outside. He's tethered in me pumpkin patch. Thought he oughta see the trees an'...an' smell fresh air...before..." His hands were shaking so violently that he accidently dropped the milk jug and it shattered on the floor.

Hermione rushed over to him, "I'll do it, Hagrid." She started cleaning up the mess. "There's another one in the cupboard." he said as he sat heavily at the table. He looked around helplessly, wiping his forehead on his sleeve.

Harry sat down next to him, "Isn't there anything anyone can so, Hagrid? Dumbledore-" "he's tried.' Hagrid answered, "He's got no power ter overrule the Committee. He told 'em Buckbeak's all right, but they're scared... Yeh know that Lucius Malfoy's like...threatened 'em, I expect...an' the executioner, Macnair, he's an old pal o' Malfoy's...but it'll be quick an' clean... an' I'll be beside him..." Hagrid swallowed hard. He still wasn't crying but his eyes were darting all around the cabin, looking for something to focus on him. "Dumbledore's gonna come down while it...while it happens. Wrote me this mornin'. Said he wants ter...ter be with me. Great man, Dumbledore."

During this Hermione was still looking for a new milk was turned away from them and let out a small sob. She straightened herself up as she picked up a new jug and turned back to them, trying to fight back tears. "We'll stay with you too, Hagrid." But Hagrid shook his giant shaggy head. "You're ter go back up ter the castle. I told yeh, I don' wan' yeh watchin'. An' yeh shouldn' do down here anyway...If Fudge an' Dumbledore catch yeh out without permission, Harry, yeh'll be in big trouble."

Tears were now streaming down Hermione's face but she tried to hide them from the boys by bustling around, making tea. As she pick up the milk bottle to pour some into the jug she let out a little scream. "Ron, I don't believe it...it's Scabbers!" Ron stared at her for a moment. "What are you talking about?"

She brought the jug over to them and turned it over. Scabbers came sliding out. He looked like he was trying to get back inside the jug.

Ron started at him blankly for a moment. "Scabbers! Scabbers, what are you doing here?" He grabbed the rat and held him up to the light so he could see him better. He looked awful, thinner than ever and missing patches of fur, like he had been sick for a while. He was trying desperately to free himself. "It's Okay, Scabbers! No cats! There's nothing here to hurt you!" But that didn't comfort him at all.

While this was happening Hagrid stood up and started staring out the window. Suddenly his normally red face had gone pale. "They're comin'..." The students watched as the group of men descended down the castle steps. The sun was setting behind them.

Hagrid turned them, "Yeh gotta go," he was trembling again, "They mustn' find yeh here...Go now..." He led them out to the back door toward the garden, "I'll let yeh out the back way." Ron stuffed Scabbers into his pocket and Hermione picked up the cloak.

Beakbeak was tethered to a tree behind them. He seemed to know that something was happening. He turned his head sharply from side to side and pawed at the ground nervously when they came out. "It's okay, Beaky," said Hagrid softly, but he didn't stop, "It's okay..." He turned back the students. "Go on, get goin'"

They didn't move, "Hagrid, we can't-" Harry started. "We'll tell them what really happened-" said Ron. "They can't kill him." Hermione pleaded. Hagrid gave them a sturdy look, "Go! It's bad enough without you lot in trouble an' all."

Hermione covered them all with the cloak as they started to hear voices coming into the cabin. "Go quick," Hagrid said, looked at the place where they were. "Don' listen..." When the men knocked on the door, Hagrid walked over to answer it.

The students started walking back up to the castle slowly. By the time they reached the other side of the cabin the heard the door snap shut. Hermione looked nervously at the boys, "Please, let's hurry. I can't stand it, I can't bear it..."

They started back up the toward the castle. The sun seemed to be setting faster. Suddenly Ron stopped. "Oh, please, Ron." Hermione pleaded. Ron seemed to be struggling with something. "It's Scabbers...he won't...stay put..." The rat was struggling and twisting, trying to bite Ron's hand.

"Scabbers, it me, you idiot, it's Ron." he said sharply. "Oh Ron," Hermione said breathlessly, "please let's move, they're going to do it!" Ron continued to struggle with it, "Okay...Scabbers, stay put..."

They started walking forward again with Ron struggling with his rat. They were trying not to listen to the men behind them when Ron stopped again, "I can't hold I'm...Scabbers, shut up, everyone'll hear us..." Scabbers was struggling more than every but he wasn't loud enough to drown out the sounds from the garden.

They couldn't hear what they were saying but they could hear men talking and then a terrible silence. Then the unmistakable sound of a swish and thud of an axe. Hermione paled and swayed like she was going to fall but she managed to stay on her feet. "They did it!" she whispered, "I d...don't believe it...they did it!"

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Itona was sitting in his room still working on something when Karma walked in his room. " _Do you think that you can have that done this year?_ " Itona shrugged his shoulders. _"You have something going on too, right?"_ He asked, never taking his eyes off his project. Karma nodded, " _If I'm right, this mission just became a lot easier."_

Itona looked up at him, " _Do you think you are?"_ Karma shrugged. " _It could go either way at this point."_

 _"Anyway,"_ Karma continued, " _I'm going to visit Nagisa tonight. Wanna come?"_ Itona shook his head and went back to what he was doing. Karma turned to leave. Getting out of the castle unnoticed was a lot easier with only one person anyway.


	20. Secrets Revealed or Cat, Rat and Dog

Chapter 17 - Secrets Revealed or Cat, Rat and Dog

"English"

 _"Japanese"_

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Karma was on his way to the forest when he heard the execution. He frowned in that direction. It wasn't like he didn't know that was going to happen. Malfoy had bragged about being the person to make that happen, but it was uncomfortable to actually hear.

"What was that?" he hadn't noticed Chiba and Hayami had also snuck out.

"The caretaker's pet." Karma answered darkly. "What are you guys doing out here?" he asked. He hadn't told anyone but Itona that he was coming.

They both looked a little embarrassed for a moment. Chiba answered, "Sometimes, when neither of us can sleep, we will come to the forest to practice." Karma nodded in understanding.

"I'm going to visit Nagisa. You're welcome to join me." he offered.

Hayami shook her head, "Thanks but we wanted to get some practice in." With that, they set off in separate directions.

Oddly enough, just as he reached the edge of the forest he spotted another familar pair. Karahashi and Masayoshi were crouching by a tree. He just kept running into people.

"So," he appeared behind them, "you two are out of bed pretty late."

They both turned to him, startled. Kurahashi stood first and crossed her arms. "For your information, there is a bug here that only comes out at night, only in this season, and only around this type of tree."

Masayoshi nodded behind her. "Its pretty neat. Its got spikes and changes color when-"

"That's cool or whatever "Karma dismissed what he was saying.

"Why are you out here?" Kurahashi asked.

Karma shrugged his shoulders, "Thought Nagisa could use some company."

"Mind if we join you." Masayoshi asked.

"Do whatever you want to. " he said flippantly.

Karma was actually very happy to have someone with him. He was getting bored alone. Besides, when they get to the Shack, it will be easier to tease Black if there were more of them. Man, he should have invited Nakamura.

The three of them heard something just a couple of feet from them but couldn't see anything. Without a word, they hid themselves in the tree line. That cat that was always hanging out with Black was slinking towards something that they couldn't see.

Out of nowhere a rat appeared and the cat gave chase. This alone would have been enough for the assassins to follow but in the next moment Weasley, Potter's friend, appeared from nothing as well and started chasing them, yelling the whole time. "RON!" They watched as Potter and Granger appeared the same way and sprinted after them.

"We're definitely going to be caught. " said Kurahashi.

Karma gave the both of them a very serious look, "We're going to follow them. Justice you come with me, Flouncy Stag Beetle, go get the others. As many as you can."

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Hermione and Harry caught up to Ron as he was diving to the ground to catch his rat. "Ron," she panted, "come on back under the cloak. Dumbledore, the Minister, they'll be coming back out in a minute"

But before they could, she heard the sound of huge paws on the ground. Bounding towards them was a gigantic, black dog. On the other side, something was moving through the trees but she couldn't tell what it was.

She saw Harry reach for his wand but the dog was quicker. It knocked him to the ground and turned around. Ron had managed to get up and started to run away but he wasn't fast enough. The dog sunk his teeth into Ron's arm and started to carry him away. Hermione and Harry seemed to have the same idea, grab him to save Ron.

The dog didn't seem to notice and dragged them behind him. He was going too fast and it was too dark for her to realize where they were until it was too late.

A branch of the Whomping Willow came out and hit her in the shoulder. She immediately fell to the ground, her shoulder had started to bleed. Soon after Harry did the same, an angry cut above his right eye. They could hear the sounds of creaking of the branches. She didn't see when he pulled out his wand and lit it up. The branches were swinging back and forth, keeping them from getting any closer.

In the dim light, they could make out Ron being pulled through a gap in the tree. The top half of his torso had already disappeared with only his legs hanging out. "Ron!" Harry yelled just before one of the branches went to hit him and he had to back up to keep from being killed. Ron hooked his foot around a root to keep himself from being taken away. That only lasted a couple of seconds before a sickening crack could be heard through the air as his leg broke and he was dragged away.

Hermione was terrified, "Harry, we've got to go for help-"

"No!" Harry objected.

"That thing's big enough to eat him; we haven't got time-" She needed to talk some sense into him. "Harry, we're never going to get through without help."

He tried to run between the branches, trying to get closer but he wasn't making any progress. "Oh, help, help." she started to dance around, looking for anything to help them. "Please..."

Out of no where, a hand appeared on her shoulder. She jumped as she turned around. "You want some help?" Akabane was standing behind her. One of the other transfer students was standing behind him, she didn't know who he was.

"Ron was taken, we need a teacher. I don't know what to do!" she was on the verge of tears.

He gave her a half smile, "Have you thought about my offer?"

She wasn't sure what to say. Harry looked between the two of them expectedly. The other transfer student stepped up to him, _"What are you two talking about? What offer?"_

 _"Don't worry about that, it won't matter if she says no. Oh, she thinks that there is no hope for Gender, she doesn't need the truth for now."_ She didn't know what he said but he looked like they were her discussing 'his offer'.

"I knew it!" she yelled at him. "I knew that you would tell others. You were just waiting for the chance to use it against me."

The other student looked startled. "I don't know what you guys are talking about. Karma had asked we leave him alone for a while and now you guys are talking about an offer. He didn't tell anyone anything about you."

She couldn't help but staring at him, wondering if that was true or if he was just defending Akabane. He was a Gryffindor, but Akabane was Slytherin. It didn't really matter with the transfer students though. They all seemed to ignore the school houses. That was something that was hard to get used to.

Behind them she noticed Akabane pick up Crookshanks. He was focusing on him, petting him and whispering to him. The other transfer student noticed this and turned around. " _How did you get that cat to come to you?_ "

Akabane smiled, still looking at the cat, " _I made sure to eat fish for a while. I thought it would smell it on me."_

 _"It worked."_ The other student smiled at him.

"Crookshanks!" she whispered. Harry still didn't know what was going on.

"What are you guys talking about? We need to help Ron!" Hermione wasn't sure what to say. She couldn't let him know about the Timeturner.

Akabane motioned to her and said, "She has a tool that could help but to use it, she would have to break some major rules. If caught, she could face some really serious charges from the Ministry." Everyone was silent for a moment. All the pressure was on her now.

The other student stepped forward and said, "Listen, it's probably to late for Nagisa but if you have something to help your other friend then use it. I promise that I will do everything in my power to protect you."

"That's why his nickname is 'Justice'." Akabane snickered.

The student looked slightly annoyed but looked back at her, "I will even take the fall for you if it means justice is served."

It was an odd thing to say but nothing in his face said that he was lying. Akabane looked at all of them for the first time since picking up Crookshanks, "You can decide whether you want to take my offer later. Let's go play hero." He bent to the ground and carefully sat Crookshanks down.

He looked up at him before darting in between the branches and pressed a knot on the tree, stopping the branches from moving.

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While this was happening, Nagisa was quite a distance away. Currently, he was kneeling by a stream, staring hard in the distance. A cold feeling penetrated deep into his body. He was certain that Dementors were gliding around over there. There was a lot of them but they didn't seem to notice him at this point.

A sharp crack rang through the air from behind him. "A gun?" He asked quietly. The Dementors notice this. They started gliding his way. It startled him for a second and he had to actually think about breathing before taking a deep breath. He felt frozen, 'move' he commanded his body.

It didn't take more than a couple of seconds for him to start going but it felt like much longer. He bolted in the direction of the gunshot, hoping that it was one of the Team E members.

He used the branches to climb into the trees and move forward more quickly. He didn't have to run for very long before noticing Chiba and Hayami standing together on the forest floor, guns in hand. He jumped down behind them. She turned to him, startled, ready to defend themselves. " _Dementors...coming this way..."_ They got the message and started leaving the area with him.

Unfortunately, they ran to an unexpected cliff. " _I forgot that this was here_." Nagisa said. The Dementors were closing in. Nagisa took a shaky breath, "Expecto pa..." he wasn't able to finish. "Expecto...expect..." He felt himself getting weak in the knees. When Chiba and Hayami stepped up next to him he felt stronger.

"Expecto Patronum!" The three of them shouted together.

Silvery light streamed from their wands. From Hayami, a silver cat guarded them from the ground and from Chiba a silver hawk circled the air in front of them. Weaving around the both of them was a long silver snake with intricate patterns along it's back.

The patronus' kept the Dementor's away from them and even made them back away.

When they were safe again they all took a shaky breath. Nagisa fell to his knees. Chiba knelt beside him to ensure that he was alright. The three of them rested by the cliff in silence for a while.

" _Were the Dementors coming after you first_?" Hayami broke the silence.

Nagisa shook his head. " _They were by the river waiting for something to cross their path. I happened to be in that area anyway so I was trying to observe their behavior when the gunshot went off."_

 _"So its our fault."_ Chiba said.

Nagisa didn't mean to imply that. " _No, nothing like that. There was no way you could know they were around_." Hayami frowned deeper,

 _"That's not the point. We were careless and that almost got is all killed, or whatever Dementors do."_

They both looked so disappointed with themselves. Nagisa wanted to say something to cheer them up but it didn't seem like anything he could say would do any good.

 _"Oh yeah_ ," said Chiba, " _Karma was coming to visit you. We met him just outside the castle."_

 _"_ _Thank you,"_ Said Nagisa, standing to leave.

Hayami stood beside him, _"We'll come to, if you don't mind._ "

Nagisa nodded, " _That'd be great_."

The three of them were still a bit shaky but they all got up and slowly walked in the direction of the Shack. There was no reason for them to rush.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Harry kicked open the door that they found after they reached the end of the tunnel. Both Hermione and Harry were starting to get annoyed with Karma, and to a lesser extent the other student, who were completely unfazed by what was happening. They even looked a little bored.

The four of them entered a room that had been torn to pieces. Everything that wasn't nailed to the floor had been smashed up and all the windows were boarded up. Hermione came up to Harry and grabbed his arm, "Harry, I think we're in the Shrieking Shack."

"No," said Akabane sarcastically, "I'm sure there's a bunch of buildings outside school grounds that are abandoned with boarded up windows around here."

Harry gave him a dark look. When he continued to look around he noticed a wooden chair with a bunch of chunks torn out and one of the legs completely ripped off. "Ghosts didn't do that." he said in a distracted voice.

The four of them heard something move on the floor above them. Harry felt Hermione's grip tighten on his arm almost painfully. He turned to her and raised his eyebrows. She got the message, she nodded and let go.

He and Hermione hunched over and slowly made their way up the crumbling stairway with their lit up wands held in front of them. Akabane and the other student didn't bother to sneak around. They didn't have their wands out at all. Harry was getting more and more irritated with the both of them. He was starting to feel like they were going to get him killed.

When they reached the dark landing, they whispered "Nox" at the same time, making the light at the tips on their wands go out. The only door that was open was at the end of the hall. As they moved forward, they heard a moan and a loud purring coming from inside. They exchanged a nod.

Harry held the wand in front of him, ready for anything.

As Harry and Hermione entered the room, the others stayed by the door. Inside the room there was a gorgeous four-poster bed, which Crookshanks was laying on. He was purring at the sight of them. On the floor next to him, Ron was sitting on the floor, his leg stuck out at an odd angle. He was very pale and clutching his leg.

Harry and Hermione ran to him. "Ron, are you Okay?" said Hermione.

Harry looked at him, "Where's the dog?"

Ron was shaking as he answered. "Not a dog," he sounded strained, "Harry, it's a trap-" "

What?" Harry asked.

Ron shook his head, "He's the dog... he's an Animagus."

Harry noticed that Ron wasn't looking at him but over his shoulder. He whipped around to find a scraggly looking man that looked like he had hastily tried to clean up. It was Black.

Black raised his wand to attack them and Harry prepared to defend himself. "I'm going to have to step in here." Akabane said, stepping forward.

Everyone turned to face him. They watched as he approached Black. Hermione reached out a hand to stop him, "Akabane wait. He's really dangerous." However he completely ignored her.

He walked over and stood next to Black and looked at them, "There is a lot of things to talk about." He turned to Black, "Really? Raising your wand at them?" He sighed and shook his head in disappointment.

"What is going on?" Harry shouted. Hermione could see the anger rising in his face.

Suddenly she figured something out. "It was you!" Akabane looked at her for an explanation.

Ron was the first to ask, "What are you talking about? What was him?"

She glanced from Ron and went back to glaring at Akabane. "He was the person that let Black into Hogwarts. He's been working with Black the entire time!"

Akabane just gave her a bored look. "Okay, that's not what's going on." He glanced back to Black, " Are you going to tell them what's going on or are you just going to stand there, all menacingly?" He smiled at Black slyly, "Or is there some reason that you want to keep that secret?"

Black looked like he wanted to say something but was at a loss for words. Akabane turned his attention back to the students, "Even though Black seems to think that he is responsible he was actually tricked. Thing is, another killed your family and blamed him. Pettigrew faked his death and hid in plain sight. Unfortunately, Black is a complete idiot that doesn't know how to deal with others without looking like a total creep." He said while pointing his thumb at Black.

"Wait a minute-" Black started to say but Akabane raised a hand to stop him. "The point is, there is proof in this room. If you give us just a moment we'll show you."

Harry looked like he was going to object but Hermione wanted to see where this was going. There was no way that she trusted him but if he says there is proof then she wanted to know what it was. "Where is your proof?" she asked impatiently.

Both Ron and Harry gave her a shocked look. She could guess what they were thinking and she had hoped that they were as curious as she was but it looked like they weren't. It wasn't like they could really do anything at this point anyway.

"Masayoshi," Akabane snapped, looking past them. They all turned to look at the other transfer student. As they were doing this she noticed Akabane whispering something in Black's ear.

Masayoshi bent down next to Ron and said softly, "Please let me see your rat." Ron hesitated as Scabbers started screeching and trying to get away even more fiercely then before. Akabane held out his arm to keep Black from going over there. Black's face had twisted in fury. Masayoshi reached his hands out gently, "He is scared, but I won't let him go. I promise."

Ron looked down at Scabbers and said, "Why do you need Scabbers? What's he got to do with anything?" Hermione was wondering the same thing.

"What are you planning?" she heard Harry yelling. Black and Akabane were turned away from them, whispering about something. They looked like they were conspiring together. Black turned to them to say something but Akabane tapped his shoulder and guided him back around.

"We aren't going to interfere with anything until you see what is about to happen." he said.

"I've waited too long-" Black was saying but Akabane shook his head, "Just a little longer."

Hermione had a sort of sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. It felt like something really bad was about to happen. The thought that this might be some sort of elaborate trap crossed her mind, not for the first time that night.

"What are you saying to him?" They heard Ron say. Masayoshi was holding Scabbers closely and whispering something to him. Scabbers had stopped squeaking and was sitting deathly still in his hands. Crookshanks was rubbing against his legs.

Seemingly out of nowhere Harry pulled out his wand. "Tell me what's going on!" he shouted. Hermione gave him a shocked look but pulled out her own wand, she didn't want to get caught unprepared.

"What are you doing?" she whispered harshly.

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A little bit earlier, Remus was in his office looking through the map again. There was just this nostalgia about it.

Recently he had taken to following some of the transfer students. It seemed that almost every night a couple of them would sneak out of the castle. It was never the same group and they almost never stayed together. It was only about once a week that they all met in the forest.

Since meeting them, he had made a real effort to memorize all of their names. It seemed that, although they all got along pretty well, they would break off into different groups. And then there were the loners, like Nagisa, Karma, and Kaede, who would hang out with the others for a bit but seemed to prefer to be alone.

He was actually pretty surprised at their organization. It was amazing that none of them had been caught.

Nagisa had found a way to weave in and out of the map. Whether this was on purpose or not he didn't know. He suspected that Nagisa was just exploring the forest.

Suddenly there was a knock on his door. Swiftly, he rose from his seat and answered the door. Before him stood Megu, one of the transfer students. Her face was as serious as always.

"Good evening," he greeted her. "What brings you here at this late hour?"

Her posture was tense. "Pettigrew has been located, however Weasely, Potter and Granger are following him closely. We are going to meet in the Shack."

With what she needed to say out of the way, she turned to leave. "Wait a second." he shouted, reaching to grab his coat. However by the time he was back at the door she had disappeared.

It was odd to say the least. She should not have been able to do that without magic but that kind of magic should be impossible in the school.

As he was running down the hall in an attempt to catch up, he had a feeling that he had forgotten something very important. Whatever it was could wait until later though.

He was breathing heavily as he reached the edge of the forest, he hadn't had to run so fast in a really long time. He was just in time to see some of the children disappearing into the trees. "Wait!" he shouted, his hand outstretched. He was slowing down.

It was surprising that they actually stopped for him. He ran again to catch up with them. "looks... like everyone's... out tonight." He felt like he was going to pass out.

Megu stepped forward, "That isn't quite true. We couldn't gather everyone."

A goofy looking blond boy, Muramatsu he believed, tapped her on the shoulder, "We need to get moving. Teach, we're going to need you."

She nodded curtly. "Thank you Loofa. Professor Lupin, please try to stay with us."

That short conversation wasn't near enough time to catch his breath again but it didn't look like he had a choice in the matter. The children moved quickly, but it still seemed like they were trying to go slowly for him. The group quickly reached the Whoomping Willow.

Kaede moved swiftly between the braches to the knot on the tree. The other children stepped aside to let Remus pass.

He was thankful that the tunnel wasn't big enough to run in. Every breath he took hurt. It was important that they get there as fast as possible but he felt like if he had to run anymore he was going to pass out.

As he moved through the tunnel the only sound besides his own ragged breath, was the quiet patter of the children's feet behind him.

It didn't take them long to reach the first landing. Remus looked around, breathless. This place was filled with so many memories.

This place represented why he was different, why he didn't belong. At the same time, it was because of this place that he saw the true loyalty of his friends. He couldn't describe it as wonderful or terrible, because in a way it had been both.

Suddenly he heard a shout from the floor above. "We're up here!" called the voice of a frantic girl. "We're up here, Sirius Black, quick!"

He raced to the top of the stairs and through the door. Bursting through the door, wand in hand, he saw an odd sight. Masayoshi was holding something in his hands, it looked like he was nibbling on it. Ron was lying on the floor with an injured leg. And, worst of all, Harry and Hermione were pointing their wands at Sirius and Karma.

He didn't want them to do anything stupid, "Expelliarmus!" The wands flew out of their hands. He wished that they wouldn't give him such a look of betrayal but there was nothing he could do about that. They obviously didn't know the whole story yet.

He looked over to Sirius and asked, "Where is he, Sirius?" But before Sirius got a chance to answer Akabane inclined his head toward Masayoshi.

At once he understood what was going on.

Karma smirked, "We are trying to persuade him now but you know," he paused and crossed his arms, "I've been wondering...would an animagus stay an animal if you killed him as one?"

The air in the room seemed so heavy in that moment. It wasn't a threat out of anger or fear. It was just curiosity, which was the most terrifying thing.

e

so the real chapter was more suspenseful and dramatic but with Karma and Masayoshi there, there qas no point in a fight...yet.

Also, I tried structuring paragraphs a little differently, just trying something new. Tell me what you think, that is, if you noticed. I don't know that it will make any difference.


	21. Half Truths or Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot

I want to thank everyone for their input. I'm very grateful that you took the time to tell me what you thought and I've definitely taken it into consideration.

chapter 18 - Half Truths or Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs

Hermione couldn't help but shiver as Akabane was still smiling at them. That was when Nakamura spoke up. _"There's an easy way to find out if he'd stay a rat or not. There are a ton of studies on Animgus'._ "

She didn't know what she said but she did hear the word 'animagus' so there was a chance that she was going to try and talk him out of whatever he was going to try to do. If anyone could it would be another transfer student.

Karma rolled his eyes. " _Duh, but i don't think that he knew that."_ The other team E members seemed to agree to whatever point he made. " _Besides,_ " he continued, " _we can use this to our advantage as long as no one says anything stupid. Remember, no knowledge can be more dangerous than wrong knowledge."_ he looked over at Terasaka.

Terasaka glared at him, " _Who says that?"_ He took a menacing step forward. It looked to Hermione like they were going to start fighting. At least he was trying to do the right thing. Something needed to be done.

It was then that something strange occurred to her. "Hold on, Pettigrew couldn't have disappeared like that. An Animagus has to be registered. The ministry keeps tabs on all of them." She turned to the boys, "We did a class with Professor McGonagall. I looked her up afterword and Pettigrew wasn't on the list. There have only been seven this century."

Masayoshi crossed his arm and tilted his head slightly to the left, "But we all know Black is one. If he was on the list they should have guarded him better, right?"

Hermione didn't even think about this. "wait," she said, still thinking about this. "he wasn't either though." She looked at Professor Lupin for an answer. "What does this mean?"

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While Remus explained his time in the shack and his friends becoming Animgus' for his sake, Okuda was having a great time on her own.

Currently, she was in the middle of a very intricate potion with Professor Snape. It was similar enough to one that she had used on Koro-sensei but different enough that she was learning something new.

Professor Snape even offered to give the Ravenclaw house points because he was so impressed with her. She told him that she didn't care about house points but it was really nice of him. The truth was there really was no one that she knew that she could talk to about potions. It was really exciting.

However, tonight he looked a little agitated. "Is everything alright Professor?"

"You haven't seem Lupin this afternoon?" he asked back. Okada shook her head. "He was to retrieve something from me. Its a very important medicine that i make for him."

Although she already knew that Professor Lupin was a werewolf, it was best to play dumb. Karma wanted to use that somehow. She couldn't imagine what he was thinking though.

Professor Snape stood up and went to his desk. "Please go back to your dormitory. I'll take this to him." He picked up a potion that he had prepared earlier. "I'll clean this up later."

Okuda bit her lip and said, "If it's all right, I would like to go with you." He looked back at her. It looked to her like he was considering taking her with him. Karma said that Professor Snape wanted people to figure out that Professor Lupin was a werewolf. She wondered, if he did take her and she 'found out', if she should act surprised.

He smiled in a way that made it seem like he was up to something, "Of course you can come. We can clean up later." She nodded happily. She wasn't as athletic as some of the other members of Team E but if they got into a dangerous situation she hoped that she would be able to help somehow. If they were too late she probably wouldn't be able to fight a full grown werewolf by herself but she could get him out of the way.

They walked through the halls quickly and made it to his office within minutes. Strangely, the door was slightly ajar. Professor Snape tapped on the door a couple of times but no one answered. "Lupin." He said clearly. The door gently swung open.

Professor Snape walked into the empty room and looked around. "Do you think that we are too late to give him his medicine?" Okuda looked around, "Maybe he went somewhere to help his symptoms." she suggested.

While she was talking, he was leaning over Professor Lupin's desk, reading something. "Go back to your dormitory now." he said quietly. She didn't know how he knew but it must be that Professor Lupin had already turned.

"Please allow me to help you." she pleaded with him. He gave her a very angry look but she continued. "I can help. If something bad is happening I can get help for you or something." He was suspicious about how she phrased that but she felt the need to be with him. He didn't say anything, he just turned around and walked away.

Under normal circumstances, she would have just gone back to her dormitory but this time she didn't. Normally she wouldn't have even talked back to him but he didn't know what she could do. She was going to help him, whether he knew what she was doing or not.

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Nagisa was just about halfway to the Shack when he was stopped by Selcor. He felt, more than saw, Chiba and Hayami getting ready for a fight.

"Greetings" Nagisa said, bowing his head gently. Selcor nodded back at him.

"I have met with the elders of the tribe and it is decided that we shall assist you. You will bring me with you to assist you." He informed them. The tone of his voice suggested that this was not a request. He brought out his bow and stood tall. Nagisa nodded at him.

"Of course," he said, standing as tall as he could, "Pettigrew is disguised as a pet rat of a student and is hiding somewhere in the school, waiting for an opportunity to go into hiding again."

Hayami stepped up beside him, "Actually, we had caught him at one point but he was able to get away from us. We believe that he is to frightened of the forest to try and leave through it."

Selcor looked like he was getting a little impatient. "What do you want me to do then?" He asked with a little edge to his voice. The three assassins looked between each other, trying to figure out what they should say at that point.

Nagisa was at a loss of what to say so Chiba took the spotlight, "Do you know of any places a rat might be able to hide relatively safely?" Selcor thought about this for a moment. "There are a few places that he might be."

Nagisa was excited at the fact that he might be able to finally find Pettigrew. "Please," he clenched his fist in front of him, "take us there."

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Severus couldn't say that he didn't regret his choice to bring miss Okada, just a bit, but letting her see the terror of a true werewolf would be beneficial. Besides, he was going to be there in case anything happened. And she would get to witness him catching a criminal in action.

She followed close behind him and for the first time he saw how tiny she really was. Every step made him seem to doubt himself a bit more. She wasn't ready for this.

They were already on the school grounds by the time he turned to her to tell her to go back. When he did he saw that she was looking at something. "What is that?" she asked quietly.

In front of them was Potter's discarded invisibility cloak. The same cloak that Potter, the elder, had used to trick him time and time again. He picked it up and wrapped it around himself. He couldn't help but smile at seeing himself disappear. Okada walked up to him and reached up to touch the material. "What is this?" she asked.

"Potter's invisibility cloak." Severus answered simply. She was looking at it thoughtfully. She seemed to always be trying to figure out everything she came across. It was something that he liked about her. She grabbed a fistful of the cloak and rubbed it between her fingers.

"Okuda," Severus said gently. She clearly didn't want to leave him but things were going to get nasty and he didn't want her to see him like that. She didn't think like a Slytherin but she didn't see him in a bad light either. He really didn't want that to change. "Go back to your dormitory now."

She surprised him slightly by her determined look. "I won't leave you now. I promise that I can help."

He gave her a sad look but nodded his head. She then opened the cloak and huddled up next to him. He was more than a little uncomfortable with having a student so close to him but they continued to the Shrieking Shack together.

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While Lupin was talking, Karma heard a creak from the next room. Instantly his guard was up.

"No one there..." Lupin mumbled. Ron was shaking, "This place _is_ haunted!" he stated.

"It's not. The Shrieking Shack was never haunted..." Lupin was still looking curiously at the door. "The screams and howls the villagers used to hear were made by me."

As he was talking Karma figured something out, they weren't alone.

" _Scatter!"_ he ordered sharply. The others looked slightly confused but followed the order. Nakamura and Karma took hold of Hermione and started in one direction while Tersaka picked up Ron and headed down the hall, despite his protests, followed by Muramatsu.

Kaede and Megu nodded at each other in a silent agreement. She was closer to Lupin so she would stay with him while Kaede took Black to safety. He didn't want to come and she thought that she was going to have to force him but with an encouragement from Lupin he agreed.

Nakumara held Hermione's hand while Karma pushed her from behind. "What's happening?" she asked frantically.

Karma leaned in close and growled, "Just move, will you."

The three of them went far enough into the forest that they thought no one would catch them. "I don't know who that was but things aren't looking good for our pal Black." Karma said, as they rested at the base of a large tree.

Hermione looked up at him. "What's going on?" she demanded.

It looked like Nakumura was going to explain but Karma cut her off. "Someone was in the Shack with us, someone we couldn't see. No one goes around hiding themselves like that for no reason... Hermione," he said thoughtfully. He waited until he had her full attention to continue. "I know you don't trust me at all but if i tell you a big secret, will you consider what i have said?"

" _What are you doing Karma?"_ Nakamura said. He had stressed they kept their true identities hidden but they might actually need her now. " _I've got this, head back without_ _me."_

She obviously didn't want to but did as he asked. Karma sat down in front of Hermione so that he was eye level with her. "Last year," he paused, trying to think of the best way to phrase things so that he wasn't a bad guy. "there was a dark wizard in my school. Because of him, I learned a ton about beating dark wizards. I enrolled here so that I could help in some way but I'm at a loss as to what to do from here."

"I am actually really good at magic." he continued. "I'm not alone either. Those others that you saw, those in the Shack with me, are my allies. Normally I would tell them anything that would help with this but when I said I wouldn't tell anyone about your secret I planned to keep that promise. They would be helpful but we don't have to tell them anything."

Hermione was listening to everything he said critically. "What about Nagisa?" she asked. He raised an eyebrow at her. "What _about_ Nagisa?" he asked back. She shook her head, "If Black was innocent, where is he in all this?"

Karma wondered whether he should tell her the truth about him but decided against it. "Who knows, maybe Black had nothing to do with his disappearing. Maybe he just ran away. Anything could have happened." If she figured out the truth later he would just play it off. After all, _anything_ could have happened.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Severus had made it into the Shrieking Shack when he heard a male's voice say something in another language and then a bunch of people leaving. In one of the bedrooms he found Lupin talking to one of the other transfer students, one of the girls. Okuda was behind him, with her hands on his back. He wished that she would step back but then she would be visible.

"We were in the same year, you know," he was talking about him. "and we er- didn't like each other very much." Severus decided to step up before he could tell her anymore about the past. It didn't matter now anyway.

"Good evening, Lupin" they were both startled when he appeared from behind the cloak. "I think that you have forgotten something." He held up the potion that he had brought with him.


	22. Losing Each Other

I haven't disappeared. There's a lot going on in my life and I had to figure some things out before I could sit down and write again. This chapter is just to catch everyone (including myself) up to where the characters are.

Chapter 19 - Losing Each Other or the Servant of Lord Voldemort

Hermione was nervous about this whole situation. Akabane was staring down at her, expecting her to answer. She wasn't sure what to do. It didn't seem like he was lying but why would a fifth year, and a Slytherin, offer to help with this situation? This was something that should be left to the adults. There was no way that he could catch a killer like Black by himself.

But he wasn't by himself though. He said that some of the other transfer students were helping him, right? He said that he didn't tell her secret to anyone but what would happen after they got back? Or what if they changed the past and everything was worse? If they got caught, she would be the only one that got in trouble, right?

Akabane shook his head, "This isn't the time for this. Right now we need to be focused on finding the others and making sure that everyone is safe."

He started to stand to leave and she quickly followed him. It wasn't like she wanted to follow him but she didn't want to be left alone in the forest. When she noticed that they were going in the opposite direction of the castle she whispered, "What are you doing?"

He turned to her with an annoyed look, "Well, I'm not going to walk up to the castle doors far after curfew when there's guards around every corner." She hadn't thought about that. She had forgotten that she had come here in the invisibility cloak.

She gave him a timid look, "What are we going to do then?" She didn't like the smile that he returned.

"We're going to visit a friend." he said slyly. Before she had a chance to ask any more he was sneaking through the forest. She tried to keep up with him but she wasn't fast enough. Somehow he was able to move seamlessly through the trees, it was like he didn't even make any noise. But for her, it was like the branches were trying to grab her with every step she took.

She started to panic when she could no longer see him. She thought that she heard something in the distance but everything was dark. Her heart was in her throat and she was looking around wildly when something suddenly appeared before her. It was Akabane.

"What are you doing?" he echoed her own words back to her. Instead of panicked like she was, he seemed very comfortable in this situation. "Lets go." He hooked her arm in his own and led her roughly through the forest.

xxxxxxxxxx

Nagisa was leading the way to the Shack, with Chiba and Hayami close behind him, when he stopped suddenly. " _What's wrong?"_ Hayami asked.

Nagisa crouched to the ground and started slinking around the Shack. Chiba and Hayami followed suite. " _Nagisa,"_ Chiba said firmly. But Nagisa held up a hand for him to be quiet for a moment.

After a moment of silence Nagisa turned to them. " _Something is wrong."_ Neither of the others knew exactly what he meant but they trusted his instinct. They followed the outline of the Shack, looking for a place to climb to the second floor. There wouldn't be a problem if it was just Karma but they wanted to be safe.

Chiba moved further away to get a better shot while Hayami moved to the outside to climb a tree with a good view. Nagisa clung to the building and slowly climbed upward.

He was very familiar with the building by this time. He knew which parts of the building would make the most noise.

When he reached the second floor he got as close to the window without being seen. He could hear the creaks in the floor as an adult moved around. Snape's smooth, slithering voice could be heard. "What are you doing here?" he hissed.

Professor Lupins voice answered innocently, "Sometimes I come here to reminisce."

Nagisa was surprised at how good he was at lying. Even though he knew the truth, Nagisa found that really convincing. Maybe part of that was the truth.

"And you thought it was a good idea to bring a student with you." Professor Snape retorted, the anger was evident in his voice.

"Actually," Megu's voice countered, "i came here of my own accord." Nagisa assumed that it would be Karma there. He wondered what she was doing.

Having her could be both a blessing and a disaster. If it was Karma he would probably something say or do to upset Professor Snape on purpose. He really didn't like him. On the other hand, Megu was a straight A student. Her being here was really odd. Explaining this was going to be hard.

"I was curious about all of the rumors that surrounded this building," he heard Megu explain. "I wanted to know if there was any merit to them. I thought that I could handle things on my own. Professor Lupin was here already and he had begun to reprimand me for being here. He had mention expulsion."

She was putting herself on the line to save Lupin Sensei. Nagisa wanted nothing more than to go in there and help them out but there was nothing that he could do. He looked over in the direction that he assumed that Hayami was in and held up two fingers, the symbol for them to wait. Karma was coming out to meet him, so if he wasn't here where was he?

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Terasaka thought that they were far enough away. " _Put him down."_ Muramatsu nodded and they started to put Weasely down gently.

"What's going on?!" He yelled. Terasaka had only been next to this boy for a couple of minutes but he was already very annoyed by him.

"Look," Terasaka said pointedly, "Someone was in the Shack with us. No one was supposed to know about it, right? That means that it could only be trouble for us."

Muramatsu crossed his arms, "We would be lucky if we only got expelled."

Weasely gave them both a horrified look. "What about Scabbers?" he nearly wailed.

Muramatsu and Terasaka smiled at each other. "Don't worry," said Muramatsu, "There is no way that we are going to let him go. Anyway," he looked down at the way Weasely was sitting, "we should fix up your leg."

" _Do you know how?"_ asked Terasaka. Muramatsu gave him a look, " _I know enough."_

He knelt down by him and rubbed his hands together to warm them up while he thought about this. He took out his want and held the tip close to Weasely's leg. Taking a deep breath, he tapped his leg and said, "Ferula" in a strong voice. Bandages sprang forth from nowhere and wrapped tightly around his leg.

Muramatsu helped him to his feet and stood close while he gently tested it. "Wow, that's a lot better." Weasely complimented him.

Muramatsu crossed his arms and turned away, "Of course, I said that I was going to fix your leg, right?" Terasaka smirked at him, "You didn't really 'fix' it though."

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kaede was having difficulty with Black. He didn't want to move but she was finally managing to get him to go. She thought it would be best if she could get him to the river moving through the forest. Nagisa that that there was some sort of safe spot near there. She was going to have to hide out until she knew that they were safe.

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Harry had lost his way in all the chaos and ended up following the first person that he saw. Akabane said that his name was Masayoshi. He was the person that was holding Scabbers. He wanted to ask him some questions but he was moving to fast for him to get a word in.

"Hey," he called, when he realized that they were moving away from the castle. "We're going in the wrong direction." Masayoshi didn't stop or even acknowledge him. He wondered if he could hear him. He was having a hard time catching up.

It wasn't more than a moment later that Masayoshi stopped suddenly. He turned to Harry, Scabber's scared little head still sticking out from between his cupped hands. "Listen," he said sternly, "I know that you are involved in this but this whole thing goes much bigger than you. You need to go back to the castle." He looked back in the direction of the Shack and then at Harry again, "After all," he sounded like this was an afterthought, "Professor Lupin will surely tell Professor Dumbledore what has happened. It would probably be best if you didn't say anything until Professor Lupin has told Professor Dumbledore what he needs to."

Harry didn't even have time to think about this before he answered. "What if Lupin isn't on our side?!"

Masayoshi looked at him evenly, "Then we tell Professor Dumbledore what happened. We still know, right?" While he was talking Scabbers was still squeaking and terrified.

They were looking at each other for a moment and neither one of them noticed that everything went silent. The next moment Masayoshi was stepping back and lowering his hands. A fat, short man appeared in his arms. Harry didn't quite know what to think about this situation.

The man turned to Harry and said, "Harry, sweet boy. Help me, they're going to kill me. You have to help me. They're not what they seem, they're-" but he finished with a screech. Harry saw when he turned that there was something sticking out of his back.

Quickly he snatched Harry's wand just as Masayoshi yelled at him, "Run Potter!"


	23. Don't Panic or The Dementor's Kiss

Chapter 20 - Don't Panic or The Dementor's Kiss

Harry blinked a couple of times. 'Did he just stab this man?' Masayoshi tackled the man that had taken his wand. Just as he started to turn around he noticed a flash of light from behind him. Masayoshi was kneeling on the ground were he had just been wrestling Pettigrew.

In the distance he thought he could see a rat running away but in the dark it was hard to tell. Masayoshi took off after it, or rather him, without saying a word.

Harry wasn't familiar with this part of the forest. Unsure of how to get back, he started walking in a random direction. It was either that or just stand there alone. If anyone knew how dangerous this forest was, it was him.

xxxxxxx

Okuda looked between them. She understood what Megu was doing and she really didn't want to get Lupin sensei in trouble, but there was something that everyone seemed to have forgotten.

She tapped Snape's arm, "What about the potion?" Both of the Professor's gave her a surprised look. Apparently, everyone had forgotten about this. Megu whipped around and looked out the dusty window. The boards that were once covering it had been mostly taken off. They thought that bringing in light would make the place a little less depressing but it seemed like it was a mistake after all.

She turned to Lupin Sensei and said, "You did take it right?" There was a lot of tension in her voice. He breathed in quickly. "Sensei!" Megu started reached toward her ponytail. Neither of the Sensei's knew that her hair clip also doubled as a knife.

Okuda looked up at Snape Sensei. His face was straining to be calm but his body language was tense. As she leaned her body forward slightly, so that she could take off in a moments notice, she saw him reach toward her in a protective manner.

 _"He's going to turn!"_ Megu shouted. Okuda grabbed Snape Sensei's arm and started to tug him away. He was starting to pull out the potion but she knew that he didn't have time. With the force of her tugging, he dropped the potion and it shattered on the floor.

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Nagisa's heart sped up. He watched as Okuda dragged Snape Sensei out of the building, followed by Megu. He couldn't see Lupin Sensei but he could hear him. He was snarling and growling.

What came out of the building was not Lupin sensei; not as he knew him. It was a creature. Brown fur streamed with gray, and sharp teeth and claws. He came bounding out, chasing after those who had just left. It was obvious that if they were normal people they would be torn to shreds.

He hoped that they would climb a tree and get away from him. He knew that the girls were able to do it, but he didn't think that Snape would be able to.

He quickly climbed down the side of the building and Lupin's path. Lupin sniffed the air and turned to him. Without looking, Nagisa ran in the opposite way. He heard a gunshot behind him. Chiba or Hayami was protecting him.

He needed to lead him through the forest.

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Karma had intended to lead Granger back to the shack so that they could take Nagisa with them. If anyone could help change the past it was Nagisa. Granger was more than a little nervous around him, which he understood, but he needed her. Stealing the Timeturner was still technically an option but it would come with some serious consequences for the both of them.

They were still quite a way from the Shack when he heard something racing toward them. He stopped walking so that he could listen. Granger leaned over next to him. "What's going on?" she whispered. He held out his hand toward her face so that she would be quiet.

He gasped as Nagisa raced past him. He hadn't heard him running. Whatever was chasing him was still coming. " _Tree!"_ he shouted. She looked confused "Wha-" "Tree!" He lifted himself onto a lower branch and reached down to pull her up.

She was just barely touching his hand when a large werewolf ran past them. He held her up so that she wouldn't fall. "Was that Professor Lupin?" she was breathing heavily.

Hayami ran past them in a blur. As much as he wanted to help Nagisa, there was no way he could do anything with Granger there. Now would be the perfect opportunity to take advantage of her Timeturner.

"Let's get out of here." he jumped from the tree and help her down. "We need to head the opposite way." She looked over her shoulder, in the direction of the Shack but followed him once again.

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Ron was limping through the forest with the help of Muramatsu. They were on their way back up to the castle. He didn't even know that sixth years were learning healing magic. Especially since it was considered a more gentle magic and neither Muramatsu or Terasaka seemed like the type.

Thankfully, they were heading back to the castle. Hopefully the others were going to make it too. Of course, he was worried about them but there wasn't anything that he could do. At least they weren't alone.

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After they managed to get Snape Sensei up in a tree, Okuda made sure that he was OK. Megu, who was looking through the forest, turned to her sternly, " _Was that the only potion?"_ Okuda nodded solemnly. _"It's important that we keep him away from the students without alerting anyone."_ Megu directed.

"Stay calm." Snape Sensei said, although his own voice was shaking. "Obliviate" said Megu calmly. A flash of light caught his eyes. He blinked a couple of times and looked around.

"What?" He looked at the girls before nearly loosing his balance.

"Professor Snape," Megu said calmly, "what were you doing?" Okuda gave her a confused look. "You were wondering around with your eyes closed." It was obvious that she was lying to save them.

Okuda nodded, "Y-yeah," she blushed, "we wanted to make sure that nothing happened to you."

Megu leaned close and whispered, " _When we get back to the castle, let's put up some precautions. We can tell the others."_

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Sirius was determined to get back to Peter. He was going to pay. Forever 0 was a irritated but he was sure that she would get over it. He was marching in the direction of the Shack.

They were still a long ways off when he heard a familiar sound. It was the howl of a werewolf. "No." he whispered. Remus had to have taken his potion. He had to have.

He started running, transforming along the way. He didn't care if that girl kept up with him or not. In fact, it would be better if she didn't.

It wasn't until it was to late that he felt the familiar cold. He started to fall to his knees. The sound of the river filled his ear, although he couldn't see it. It was too much.

There were so many of them. The Dementors. They were everywhere. Darkness on all sides. He closed his eyes and the nightmares started playing behind his eyelids. He felt hands on his chest, trying to pull him away but even that feeling was starting to fade. In the distance he could hear Harry's voice but he couldn't make out what he was saying.

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Hermione was out of breath. She had been running behind Akabane for quite a while and she didn't think that she could go any further. When she insisted on stopping for breath, saying that she really couldn't go any further, he stopped with her. But that didn't last long.

While they were stopped, he looked up suddenly. "What is-" but he held up his hand to silence her. She was getting annoyed with him for doing that. He looked around, like he was trying to find where some sound was coming from. She didn't hear anything.

"Stay here." he said, running away. She stood looking around for something. The forest seemed to be closing in on her. She wasn't familiar with anything here at all. It felt like anything could jump out at her at any moment.

After a while she thought that it would be a good idea to start walking back to the castle. Unfortunately, she didn't know the way back. Without any direction, she started walking in the direction that she came from.

She had only taken a couple of steps when Akabane came back. His cheeks were red with exhaustion and he was breathing heavily. "Granger..." He said. She was so relieved to see him. She had thought that he was going to leave her here. Behind him came one of the Hufflepuff transfer students that was older than them and Nagisa. The Hufflepuff student startled her for a moment because he had a really big gun on his back.

She thought she had seen everything at this school but guns were not part of the wizarding world. In fact, they didn't belong in any school. But the others didn't seem to mind it and it wasn't like she was in a situation that she could be picky about things like this.

She ran up to Nagisa and hugged him. "Thank goodness." she said, "I thought that you were gone forever."

As she held him at arms length, she noticed that he had an awkward look on his face. "Sorry about that. I had to disappear for a little bit. Right now, Black needs our help again."

They both turned to the others. Akabane and the Hufflepuff were talking quietly to each other. They seemed to notice that they were looking at them and motioned for them to come along. "We need to get going." said Akabane. She noticed that he was considerably more relaxed now that the other two were with him.

Akabane and Nagisa were walking together in front of her. The Hufflepuff boy started walking beside her. "My name is Ryunoske Chiba. Most people call me Chiba." he said.

She looked over at him. "Oh, I'm Hermione Granger. My friends call me Hermione." She tried to look him in the eyes but she realized that she couldn't see his eyes at all. The others were speaking Japanese so she didn't understand anything that they were saying.

 _"_ _Hayami said that she could follow Lupin Sensei and keep him from harming others."_ Nagisa said. Karma nodded at whatever he said and thought about it for a moment.

He turned back to Nagisa sharply, " _Are you sure that she could handle it? Do you think that other members of the team will be able to come and assist them?"_ Nagisa nodded enthusiastically. Chiba was silent the entire time. She wanted to talk to him but she didn't know how to speak to him. He didn't seem like the type to talk a whole lot and so it was hard to start a conversation.

After a while, they heard the familiar voice of Harry. He sounded so strained. There wasn't any time to think about it, she started running in his direction. But Chiba passed her almost instantly. Akabane and Nagisa were gone too.

She ran up to where his voice came from. There was a lake surrounded by Dementors. Harry and Kaede were kneeling next to Sirius who was laying on the ground moaning. Akabane was tending to Nagisa who was also laying on the ground and Chiba was backing away, pointing his gun at the Dementors.

Hermione rushed over to Harry. He looked up at her, blinking his eyes and shaking his head to try to focus. He raised his wand to the Dementors and said "Hermione, think of something happy!" He tried a couple of times but it didn't work very well. A couple of feet away Akabane was trying the same spell. It worked but the spell was weak.

Harry gasped, still trying the spell. "He's innocent... expecto... expecto patronum..." the Dementors were closing on them. Hermione felt faint, she fell next to him. One of the Dementors came really close to them and lowered its hood. She looked at its empty eye socket and gaping hole were a mouth should be. If she had enough sense left to smell she would have probably smelt it's rotting flesh. But as it was, she was barely holding on.

She was certain that they were done for. Her vision was blurry and she closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable to happen when the air got a little warmer. Akabane crawled forward a little as a figure in the distance moved away.

That was the last thing she saw as the world faded away.


	24. Doing it Better or Hermione's Secrecret

Welp, that took long enough... but, I'm back

Chapter 21 - Doing it Better or Hermione's Secret

Karma wasn't sure how, but he woke up near the castle alongside Chiba and Nagisa. Chiba managed to wake up as well, but Nagisa was still completely out of it. Although neither of them had very much strength left, they decided to work together to get everyone back to the castle but when they went to get them, they found that everyone had been moved away from the lake. It seemed like whatever had been moving them ran away when they showed up. They had almost moved everyone when he fell back asleep.

When he woke up again, he was in the hospital wing. It seemed like Chiba, Hayami, Nagisa, Potter, Granger and Weasely, somehow, all made it back as well. Everyone else seemed to still be sleeping. He tried to get up but Madam Pomfrey rushed over to him. "Oh dear, don't move. Here," she retrieved a chunk of chocolate, "eat this."

He was too tired to argue so he just took the chocolate. As he was nibbling on it she went over to check on the others. Nagisa was at the other end of the wing, with pillows and blankets all around him. It looked like she was taking special care of him.

He wondered if they figured out that about half of Team E was out tonight. It would be pretty bad if that were to happen.

Outside he heard the voices of Dumbledore and the Minister. "I want to say something to the Minister." Karma stated. "It's alright, Mr. Akabane," she said soothingly. But Karma struggled against her. Madam Pomfrey pursed her lips together. "No, you need your rest." But he was already getting out of bed and started heading for the door.

"Now wait a minute!" she started after him. As she grabbed his arm the door opened and the Minister walked in, "Oh, you're awake Mr. Akabane." "Can we talk for a bit?" Karma asked. The Minister held a hand up to her and said, "I'll only be a moment."

They walked out into the hall. "It was a miracle that no one died." said the Minister in a hushed voice. "I've never heard of anything like this." Karma shook his head, "This isn't very private. I'll tell you what happened later. Where is Black now?" He said in a low voice. The Minister looked very uncomfortable, "Sirius is locked in Professor Flitwick's office on the seventh floor. The Dementors will be preforming the kiss very soon." "So, my story means nothing?" Karma accused. "I'm sorry," The Minister said. "There is nothing that I can do at this point."

Behind them the door opened and Madam Pomfrey left the room and Dumbledore went in. "He said that he needed to speak to them alone for a moment. I wish you would all leave these children to rest!" she huffed.

The Minister nodded and continued, "It was lucky you were there, Mr. Akabane. It was rather foolish to go out there alone. Why didn't you get a teacher?" The Minister obviously wanted him to make up a story. Karma smiled slyly at him for a second. "I thought I saw a sign of Nagisa. There wasn't any time to get a teacher. I know it was foolish but I couldn't let him go."

"Well, yes, it was foolish," the Minister returned, "but without you, who knows what would befall the others. You should probably get some sleep now." Karma nodded, "Of course, Mr. Minister. First I need to check on the others. I'm really worried, I just want to make sure that they're OK." The Minister smiled, "Thank you, Mr. Akabane. Goodnight."

When he walked back into the hospital wing he walked right past Dumbledore. Potter and Granger were standing together with the Timeturner in her hands. "So," he said, gaining their attention. "You've decided to save everyone?"

"What's that?" Nagisa asked beside him. He hadn't even noticed him getting out of bed.

Karma shrugged his shoulders. "It's a thing that could solve everything." Granger glared at him and Nagisa knitted his eyebrows together. "Hermione, what does that mean?" Potter asked.

On the other side of the room Chiba was at Hayami's bed, checking on her.

"This," Granger answered, holding up the Timeturner, "Is called a Timeturner."

"Basically what it sounds like," Karma interrupted, "One turn equals one hour. Time moves in a loop so when you reach the point you went back from there's only one you again."

Chiba and Hayami walked up to them and Nagisa's eyes widened when he actually saw her. There were bandages on her arms and a scratch on her face. "You didn't get turned into a werewolf, did you?" She shook her head, "No, Lupin didn't touch me. The woods have tons of other dangers."

"What?" Potter said, obviously confused. "Basically," Chiba interjected, "it doesn't matter how far you go back, once you get back to the point that you left from, that version of you will disappear." "So, whoever goes back now has already gone back." Hayami continued.

"The point is, we can change certain things. The only catch is, we can't be seen by anyone." He turned back to Granger, "OK, so who is going?" She gave him a perplexed look. "The Timeturner is yours, so you decide who is going." He stated.

She looked at everyone in turn. "Five people is too many to take to the past. Harry and Akabane, I guess you guys should come."

"Um, Granger," Nagisa said, "I would like to come as well." She looked uncertain but Karma interjected, "That's a good idea, Nagisa doesn't look it, but he's pretty talented."

Chiba put a hand on Hayami's shoulder as they started turning away, "Please try and come back around this time."

Granger put the chain around their necks and turned it over three times. As they were walking back to their respective beds Hayami looked back to the spot that they had just left and said, " _I still don't really understand how this is possible. If they can go back in time that means that anything they are going to do is already done, so nothing will change, right?"_

Chiba shrugged his shoulders, " _I don't know how it works."_

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Karma felt like the chain was starting to cut into his neck. The room around them seemed to dissolve. It felt like they were falling backwards really fast. The colors and shapes in the room started to blur. Potter looked like he was trying to yell but he couldn't hear it.

It didn't last very long and, before he knew it, he was on solid ground again and everything came back into focus. Potter was looking around wildly. They were still in the hospital wing, luckily it was currently empty.

Karma slipped out of the chain and swiftly left the room with Nagisa close on his heels. Granger and Potter looked terrified at what they just did but he didn't stop for a second. Quickly they followed them into the hall.

They had almost reached the main entrance when Karma heard some foot steps coming in their direction. "In here!" said Granger as she grabbed Potter's arm. She dragged him into a broom closet. Karma pushed Potter closer to the back as he packed himself in. Nagisa also somehow managed to squeeze in and shut the door.

It was dark and hot in there, with everyone breathing on each other. "I think it's us going to Hagrid's!" Granger said. Potter knitted his eyebrows together, "Are you telling me that we're here in this cupboard and we're out there too?"

Karma reached up and pinched between his eye brows. "Didn't we just get done explaining everything to you? Yes, you're back in time. You're in both places at once."

"Granger," Nagisa looked up at her, "can I ask, why did you only send us back 3 hours?" Without the light, no one could tell but she started to blush, "Dumbledore suggest it and... I thought that would be enough time."

Someone in the room shifted but Karma couldn't tell who it was, "Why are you guys moving so slowly?" "We had the Invisibility Cloak-" She stopped suddenly.

" _Come on."_ said Karma, nudging Nagisa. "Wait!" said Granger as they left the room. There was no way that they could stop them now. "They're going to get caught, I know it!"

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 _"_ _Karma,"_ said Nagisa, as they were hiding in the shadows. " _Where were you three hours ago?"_

Karma took a moment to think about it. " _I had just finished studying and then I was going to come and see you. Oh, I ran into Chiba and Hayami but they were on their way to do something else."_

Nagisa nodded, " _OK, but what are we going to do? We all failed because of the Dementors attack so how do we keep Black away from the Dementors without seeing ourselves?"_

" _I've got a plan,"_ Karma said with a smirk.

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Hermione led the way to the forest so that they could follow themselves. As they were about to enter the forest she saw something that really scared her. Chiba and Hayami were also walking to the forest. They were both carrying what looked like guns.

"Hide!" she whispered and slid behind a tree. Harry followed suit. Thankfully, neither of them seemed to hear or see them. Chiba and Hayami just continued on their way.

She could feel her heart in her throat, "Right," she gasped, "we need to sneak over to Hagrid's... Keep out of sight, Harry..." He nodded and followed her.

They stayed within the tree line and, when they got within sight of Hagrid's house, they heard a knock on the door. Quickly they hid behind an oak with a wide trunk. When Hagrid answered the door, he looked just as bad as before, pale and shaking.

"It's us." Harry whispered, "We're wearing the Invisibility Cloack. Let us in and we can take it off." "Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid whispered back loudly, but he stepped back for a moment and then shut the door as quickly as he could.

Harry had a confused look on his face, "This is the weirdest thing we've ever done," "Let's move along a bit," Hermione pressed, "We need to get nearer to Buckbeak!"

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While they were trying to get Buckbeak free, Karma led Nagisa back into the castle through a side window. Although Nagisa was still a little confused as to what was going on, he trusted that Karma had a good plan.

Creeping through the hallways, they made their way down to the Slytherin common room. _"We can't be seen,"_ Nagisa whispered. Karma smirked at him, " _Don't worry, we're not going to see ourselves and we're not going to be seen in the same place at the same time."_

Nagisa looked around as they traveled to the dorms. He had never been to the Slytherin common room before and wanted to have a look around. Karma entered one of the rooms without knocking. Nagisa figured that it must be his room. Itona was sitting alone in the middle of the room, surrounded by computer parts.

" _Karma? Did you forget something?"_ He asked curiously. _"It's a long story,"_ Karma replied casually walking around the room. Itona's eyes widened when he saw Nagisa enter the room after Karma.

Nagisa knelt next to him, " _What are you working on?"_ Itona looked back to what he was working on. " _I'm trying to bring Ritsu here. You can't use technology here so I'm trying to make a magic battery."_

" _Itona,"_ Karma continued, " _I need a favor. In about an hour or two several people are going to be coming back to the castle from the forest. Weasely is injured and Snape might be too. Nakamura should be coming back on her own. Okajima and Kurahashi should still be in the castle. You guys should stay here and help people that need it. If everything works out, most of us will stay out of the hospital."_

Itona nodded and set down what he was working on. " _Good luck,"_ Nagisa said as they walked out the door. " _What are we going to do now?"_ Nagisa asked.

Karma recklessly turned the corner. " _Don't worry about being seen. If people see us here, then we have an alibi for tonight. The worst thing that could happen is that we might get detention for being up after hours. Maehara can help with the Hippogriff. Then we can head into the forest and help others. First, we need to remember who was where tonight."_

 _"Right,"_ Nagisa agreed.

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Harry had just watched himself leave under the invisibility cloak and the execution party read off the official notice to Hagrid when something odd happened. One of the exchange students that was a couple of years older than they were appeared from behind one of the other trees. "Potter? Granger?" he whispered.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other for a moment. "Um," Hermione said hesitantly, "yeah, we're here. Who are you?"

He started moving toward them, "My name is Maehara. Karma asked me to come out and help you guys save this hippogriff. So, are we gonna distract them and set it free."

Harry shook his head, "We don't need to do that. Mcnair already saw him so we don't need a distraction."

Maehara smiled brightly, "Good, that makes everything a lot easier."

"When did you say Karma asked you to help?" Hermione asked.

Maehara thought about it for a moment. "Uh, just a couple of minutes ago." Hermione paled as he said that. "Well," he continued, "he also said that I should head right back to my dorm after. Look, sometimes Karma seems... menacing, but he's really not a bad guy."

Hermione nodded solemnly, "I suppose I can see that."

Harry untied Buckbeak's rope and started to pull but he didn't seem to want to go. Maehara went around and started pushing him from behind. Harry was half afraid that he was going to be kicked. The execution committee was finishing up with everything that they needed to do. Dumbledore had stalled them as much as he could but he was out of excuses.

"Buckbeak, move!" Harry commanded.

They could hear footsteps approaching the door but they stopped when Dumbledore said, "One moment, please, Macnair. You need to sign too." Harry was relieved to hear that.

Finally, with the help of Maehara, he got Buckbeak to start moving. He was walking slowly, rustling his wings with a bit of irritability. Hermione was watching them from the tree line, white as a sheep. "Quick! Quick!" she moaned, motioning for them to come to her.

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Karma smiled to himself when he heard the thud of the axe followed by the sound of Hagrid crying loudly, "Gone! Gone! Bless his little beak, he's gone! Musta pulled himself free! Beaky, yeh clever boy!" Nagisa also took a sigh of relief. Maehara had been successful.

Past-Chiba and past-Hayami were walking just in front of them when past-Karma caught up to them. Karma grabbed Nagisa's arm and pulled him into the shadows. " _What was that?"_ past-Hayami asked.

Past-Karma shrugged his shoulders, " _The Caretaker's pet got away I suppose. Anyway,"_ he turned back to them, " _What are you guys doing out here?"_

Past-Chiba and past-Hayami looked at each other for a moment with a hint of embarrassment, " _Sometimes,"_ past-Chiba answered, " _when neither of us can sleep, we come to the forest to practice."_

Past-Karma nodded and said, " _I'm going to visit Nagisa. You're welcome to join me."_

Past-Hayami shook her head, " _Thanks, but we wanted to get some practice in."_

As the three of them were going their separate ways, Karma looked over at Nagisa, " _I'm about to run into Masayoshi and Kurahashi. Then Potter, Granger and Weasely are going to bring Pettigrew right to us."_

 _"What?!"_ Nagisa said, " _You had Pettigrew again!?"_

Karma sighed dramatically, " _Yeah, but he got away, again. Anyway, let's follow Chiba and Hayami. We can bring them back to the Shack in time."_

Nagisa gasped, " _Wait, I ran into them in the forest. I was deep in the forest when I heard them practicing."_

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Maehara, Potter and Granger hid quietly with the Hippogriff while the Execution Committee started going inside. "Now What?" Potter whispered.

Granger looked very scared but he had to commend her for the bravery she's shown so far. Not once did she let her fear stop her. "We'll have to hide in here. We need to wait until they've gone back to the castle. Then we wait until it's safe to fly Buckbeak up to Sirius's window."

"What are you talking about?" Maehara asked. It seemed like they had forgotten that he was there.

"Well, er, she meant Sean's window. We're, uh, pulling a prank." Potter stammered through a lie. It was obvious that he wasn't very good at lying but it was concerning. They were talking about flying up to Sirius' window that meant that he was in the castle. Unless there was someone else in the castle named Sirius but then there wouldn't be any reason for Potter to lie about the name. He had thought that Potter hated Black so either something has changed or Potter and Granger were taking the Hippogriff to Black for nefarious reasons. Since Nagisa was with Karma, Black was unprotected, unless someone else was with him. He figured he would mention it to the first person for Team E that he saw.

Either way, something needed to be done. Maehara just shook his head, "It doesn't matter. If you've guys got it from here, I've got some things to do." They tried to call him back and stop him from leaving but he just waved as he took off.

Karma had told him that Snape was brewing a Wolfsbane potion and there should be some left in the dungeons. He needed to get down there, take some of the potion and make it into bullets, all without being seen. That wasn't going to be very easy in itself, but, to top it all off, he needed to take these things to Hayami or Karma is he saw him again, who was somewhere in the forest so he needed to find them.

Nothing could ever just be easy, could it?

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Karma told Nagisa to tell past-him to go with him. They needed to meet up with Maehara with the Wolvesbane while he followed the others.

He found Masayoshi on his way to the Whomping Willow. " _Where were you?"_ He whispered.

Karma smirked at him, " _I_ _t's a long story."_ Masayoshi looked skeptical but accepted it.

They approached Potter and Granger, who were hurt and panicking in front of the Whomping Willow. He motioned Masayoshi to hang back for a moment and walked right up behind Granger. "Oh help help," she was moving around, like she felt like she needed to do something and she didn't have anything that she could, "Please..."

He put his hand on her shoulder and she nearly jumped out of her skin. "You want some help?"

"Ron was taken, we need a teacher." she looked like she was going to cry, "I don't know what to do!"

He gave her a mischievous smile, "Have you thought about my offer?" It was only funny to him, because she already did. Perhaps he was supposed to press her a little more.

Masayoshi, who was completely out of the loop, walked up next to him and said, " _What are you two talking about? What offer?"_

 _"Don't worry about that, it won't matter if she says no."_ Karma said, thinking about how fun it was to know the future, if only in this situation, " _Oh, she things that there is no hope for Gender, she doesn't need the truth for now."_

 _"_ I knew it!" she pointed at them, "I knew that you would tell others. You were just waiting for the chance to use it against me." He groaned, he should have known better. He took back what he thought earlier, it would have been better it everyone was on the same page.

"I don't know what you guys are talking about." Masayoshi salvaged the situation, "Karma had asked we leave him alone for a while and now you guys are talking about an offer. He didn't tell anyone anything about you."

It looked like she was trying to figure out if this was true. Behind him the cat came up to him. It hadn't come up to him before even though he had been trying to get him to come for quite a while. He bent down and held out his hand and it actually allowed him to pick it up. Masayoshi noticed this, " _How did you get that cat to come to you?"_

Karma smiled at him, " _I made sure to eat fish for a while. I thought it would smell it on me."_

 _"It worked."_ Masayoshi smiled back.

"Crookshanks!" Granger whispered.

Potter was still panicked, "What are you guys talking about? We need to help Ron!"

Granger was getting more and more nervous. Karma decided that it was about time he intervened. He gestured to Granger, "She has a tool that could help but to use it, she would have to break some major rules, like federal level stuff. If caught, she could face some really serious charges from the Ministry." He hoped that would sooth things as best he could.

As he was paying attention to the cat Masayoshi moved closer to her, "Listen, it's probably to late for Nagisa but if you have something to help your other friend then use it. I promise that I will do everything in my power to protect you."

"That's why his nickname is 'Justice'." Karma snickered, still petting the cat, hoping that it run away. He had no idea what he was promising.

"I will even take the fall for you if it means justice is served." Masayoshi swore to her. He really was an amazing person.

Potter was getting anxious and they needed to get back on track, "You can decide whether you want to take my offer later. Let's go play hero." He put the cat down and started to move to the tree. But, before he could do anything the cat ran over and pressed the knot on the tree. He raised an eyebrow about how things were working out.

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Past-Karma (although, he wouldn't know that he was the 'past' version of himself. Really it would be correct to call him present-Karma) was moving through the forest with Nagisa, who was leading him back toward the castle. They were skirting near the Caretaker's hut. He felt the modified gun at his waist. It was designed to fit the bullets that they made for potion darts.

" _So,"_ Past-Karma said, " _what's going on? Why weren't you going to the Shack?"_

Nagisa looked like he wasn't sure were to start. " _Like I said before, we need to meet up with Maehara. He has a potion for Professor Lupin because he's going to forget to take it."_

 _"How do you know that?"_ past-Karma asked curiously. " _It's...it's a long story."_ Nagisa said wearily.

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Harry was watching carefully as Sirius pulled Ron through the Whomping Willow, and then the branches stopped moving. "That was Crookshanks pressing the knot." Hermione said beside him.

"And there we go..." Harry muttered, reliving what had happened in his mind. "We're in."

"In where?" came Karma's voice from behind him. In his peripheral vision he could see Dumbledore, Macnair, Fudge and the old committee member were making their way up to the castle. Nagisa and Karma came walking up to them.

Nagisa went ahead of him and whispered, "This isn't the same Karma." Hermione paled further, he thought that she might faint.

"What's the problem?" past-Karma asked.

Nagisa shook his head, "We have to find professor Lupin." He turned back to Harry and Hermione, "We have the Wolvesbane potion,"

"So," past-Karma walked around them with his hands behind his back. Nagisa didn't like that look, it meant trouble. "I feel like I am the only one out of the loop."

"What are you talking about?" Hermione tried to say innocently. Past-Karma rolled his eyes, "You are a really bad liar."

Before they had a chance to say anymore Harry said, "Here comes Lupin!" Surely enough a shadowy figure came running out of the castle, followed by another. Harry looked up at the cloudy sky. He watched as Lupin and several others stop the branches from moving and they moved through.

Harry knitted his eyebrows, "If he'd only grabbed the cloak. It's just lying there..." He turned to Hermione. "If I just dashed out now and grabbed it, Snape'd never be able to get it and-"

"Harry," Hermione interrupted, "We mustn't be seen!"

"Weird," past-Karma said slowly, "A couple of questions. First, how do you know exactly where the cloak is? Second, why do you think that Snape is going to be out here? Third, why do you have the Hippogriff? And finally, why can't you be seen?"

The other three looked at each other for a moment, unsure of what to say. While they were talking Hagrid started making his way up to the castle, singing at the top of his lungs. Obviously he had been drinking a bit. "See?" Hermione whispered to him, "See what would have happened? We've got to keep out of sight!" Buckbeak started to shake his head, trying to get free. "No, Buckbeak!"

Once Hagrid was gone he stopped trying to get away. He just dropped his head, defeated.

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see past-Karma and Nagisa doing something with a gun. The fact that they had guns in school was terrifying.

Then the castle doors flew open and Snape came storming out with one of the transfer students following closely behind. "What's going on? Why is she with him?" Nagisa asked, he had somehow crept up beside him.

Past-Karma appeared on the other side of him, "Okuda was taking special potion lessons with him."

Snape stopped short of the tree and picked up the cloak. "Get your filthy hands off it," Harry said under his breath. Although they couldn't hear what was being said, this Okuda girl was clearly standing up to him. Oddly, he seemed to give up whatever argument they were having. She felt the cloak and asked something. Snape wrapped the cloak around the both of them and they headed for the Whomping Willow.

Hermione looked like she wanted to say something but couldn't because past-Karma was here. He didn't know what was going on but it was pretty obvious that he knew something was wrong. How could he not?

"Karma," Nagisa addressed him, "listen, this is going to be really weird but if you just go along with it, you'll understand later. I promise." Past-Karma sighed and put his chin in his hand. He looked disappointed by this but he wasn't arguing. "There is a river south of here, Professor Lupin should be there soon. You have to make sure he gets his potion."

Past-Karma stood up and brushed himself off, "I'd better understand everything when this is all over." Nagisa smiled back at him, "I don't think any of us will understand everything, but out of everyone, you should know the most."

xxxxxxxxx

Past-Karma had met up with Maehara, gave him the potion, and was on his way to the Shack. It seemed like he didn't know what was going on either. Tonight was the full moon. You'd think that Lupin what pay more attention to the cycle of the moon, given his condition.

On his way to the Shack he noticed the second weirdest thing that he had ever seen. He just ran past him. The other him stopped at looked at him with a little bit of concern. "We have the Timeturner?" he asked himself. The other him smirked at him, "Yeah, so Granger is right behind us. Snape found the Shack but didn't see us, Weasely's leg is broken, Potter is... I don't actually know. Oh, and Lupin just turned."

"What were you doing?" Past-Karma asked future-Karma. Future-Karma just rolled his eyes, "Just grab Granger." Past-Karma gave him the potion and headed back the other way.

It didn't take long to find Granger. She was walking the opposite way, looking scared and confused. "What are you doing? Let's go." He hooked his arm in hers and started to lead her through the forest.

xxxxxxxxx

"Now that he's gone, we should be able to talk openly." said Hermione. She took the end of Buckbeak's rope and tied it to a tree. "We're all down there..." she sat on the ground with her arms around her knees, "we've just got to wait until we come back up again..."

"I don't think that we should just wait." Nagisa said cautiously. "If we know what is going to happen, then let's try to make it happen a little more smoothly. I wasn't with the others when everything happened."

"Where were you?" Harry asked. "Come to think of it, where have you been? Everyone thought that Sirius had kidnapped you."

Nagisa looked a little sheepish, "Um, I went out and found him but couldn't really come back. I was trying to prove his innocence."

"You knew," Hermione looked up at him, "that he was innocent the whole time?"

Nagisa shook his head, "Not the whole time but yeah, since the day I left the castle. Finding proof is really hard."

Hermione sighed before she said, "Harry," drawing his attention, "there's something I don't understand... Why didn't the dementors get Sirius? I remember them coming, and then I think I passed out... there were so many of them..."

Harry sat down across from her, "I saw one of the dementors come close to me and opened it's mouth. It was getting so close to me..." He knitted his brow, trying to recalled exactly what happened, "Then some bit of silver... something came galloping across the lake and forced the dementors to retreat. But what was it?" he said the last part to himself.

"A real Patronus." Nagisa said quietly. "A powerful one." Hermione added. "But who conjured it?"

"Did you, uh," Nagisa said nervously, "recognize the person that cast it?"

"Was it one of the teachers?" Hermione asked.

Harry shook his head, "No, it wasn't a teacher." He thought about the person he had seen. He thought he knew who it was but... that was impossible.

"But it must have been a really powerful wizard," Hermione pressed, "to drive all those dementors away... If the Patronus was shining so brightly, didn't it light him up? Couldn't you see-"

"Yeah," Harry interrupted her, "I saw him. But... maybe I imagined it... I wasn't thinking straight... I passed out right afterward..."

"Ok," Nagisa said, there was a really serious look on his face. "Let's put together what we know for a fact. Some very powerful wizard that is familiar enough to Potter that he recognized him saved us with a Patronus. But that was past-us. It's possible that the current us went to someone powerful for help. Professor Lupin is here but he couldn't have done it. Professor Snape is also-"

"No," Harry said sharply. He couldn't imagine Snape saving him like that. He probably would have let him die.

"Well," Nagisa continued, "who else do know that it could be. I doubt it was Dumbledore because he was in the castle. Also he wouldn't have sent you back if he was there... probably. So let's try and think of who else it could have been."

"I think... I think it was my dad." Harry said, knowing how strange that sounded. Hermione's mouth hung wide open, she was looking at him with a mixture of alarm and pity.

"Harry, your dad's... well... dead," she said quietly. Harry clenched his fist and looked down, "I know that," he whispered.

"You think you saw his ghost?" Hermione asked. Harry looked away, "I don't know... no.. .he looked solid..."

Buckbeak was behind them, digging at the ground for some worms. "Is it possible," Nagisa said slowly, "It was a relative that you don't know? Perhaps one of your father's family, like a cousin that came to the school for some reason. Like they might be working for the government and they came because of Buckbeak or something like that."

Nagisa was trying to help but none of this was helping at all. "Anyway," Nagisa continued, "I think the two of you can handle the Hippogriff, I'm going to find out what's going on."

"Wait, Nagisa!" Hermione stood, "If you're seen-" "I won't be," Nagisa countered. As he walked away the clouds shifted, revealing the beautiful, full moon.

xxxxxxxx

Past-Nagisa ran away from the Shack with Professor Lupin on his tail. It was only for a second but he thought he saw Karma and Granger but he didn't have time to stop.

He was certain that Chiba and Hayami were right behind him. Werewolves were fast and there was no way that he could out run him for long. There were a few options here, places that he could go were Professor Lupin couldn't reach him.

Out of nowhere, a hand hang down from a tree just in front of him. He grabbed the hand and was pulled into the tree. Karma smiled at him. " _What_?" Nagisa looked back toward the Shack. He was sure that Karma was just there a moment ago.

" _I've got the Wolvesbane potion_ ," Karma stated, " _Hayami and I can give it to him. Take Chiba and go toward the river."_

 _"No,"_ Past-Nagisa shook his head, " _they're dementors over that way."_ They could hear gun shots near them.

Karma nodded, " _Yeah, but Granger and I are heading that way and we need you guys."_ Past-Nagisa gave him a very confused look but accepted it.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Past-Harry needed to find Sirius. He had been running through the forest, trying to find his way back. Out of the corner of his eye he saw someone he was scared that he would never see again, "N-Nagisa?"

Nagisa stopped in his tracks and looked at him with wide eyes for a moment, "Oh, Potter, I didn't see you there. Listen Potter, I've spoken with Karma, I know everything that had happened. Look, Black is in danger by the lake. Professor Lupin had turned but he is nowhere near there right now."

Past-Harry was having trouble keeping up for a moment. "Yeah, I'll go and help him." Nagisa nodded and started to leave the other way, "Where are you going?" Past-Harry called after him. "There are other people that need help."

xxxxxxxxxx

Hermione couldn't stop shaking. Nagisa and Karma weren't with them, who knows where they were. After a little over an hour she noticed that Harry was getting a little too restless. She thought that he was going to do something. Harry got to his feet. "Harry," she muttered under her breath, "we've got to stay put. We mustn't be seen. There's nothing we can do..."

"I was there," Harry looked frustrated, "I was there when Pettigrew escaped... Masayoshi was attacked, I couldn't do anything then but maybe this time..."

"What do you think we can do this time?" Hermione snapped, "We are supposed to be helping Sirius and nothing else! And, above all that, we cannot be seen by ourselves, under any circumstances."

"Alright," Harry didn't seem any less frustrated.

They noticed something happening in the Shack. "Lupin is transforming." Hermione stated. "But, we weren't there at the time... Who was there?"

"Hermione!" Harry grabbed her hand, "We've got to move! Hagrid's will be empty now, we can hide there." They ran as fast as they could, Buckbeak kept up with them easily. Harry ripped the door open and the three of them rushed inside. Harry bolted the door shut. Fang had been left behind. He started barking when they entered.

Hermione turned to him, "Shh, Fang, it's us!" She went over and started scratching him behind the ears. Buckbeak seemed happy to be back here and made himself comfortable in front of the fire. Meanwhile, Harry was looking out the window for any sign of him. "That was really close." "Yeah..." said Harry in a distracted voice.

Harry turned back to her, "I think I'd better go outside again, you know. I can't see what's going on. Nagisa and Karma could be close by." Gunshots could be heard outside. It was a sound that Hermione never thought that she would hear at Hogwarts but she knew what it was. She only hoped that they would be safe.

Hermione thought that it would be nice if they really were close by, them not being here was making her really nervous. Akabane knew the consequences of misusing the Timeturner but Nagisa know didn't anything about it. Besides that, Nagisa already talked to Past-Akabane and that could have caused them trouble.

"I'm not going to try and interfere," Harry said quickly, "But if we don't see what's going on, how're we going to know when it's time to rescue Sirius?"

Hermione pressed her lips together, "Well... okay, then... I'll wait here with Buckbeak... but Harry, be careful, there's a werewolf out there, and the dementors... Please find the others and come back..." For a moment, Harry stood by the doorway. Hopefully, he was taking what she had said into consideration.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Harry's heart felt like it was going to beat right out of his chest. He was certain that if he went to the lake he would run into whoever cast the Patronus. Then he would knew who cast it. He needed to know.

He heard himself yelling by the lake. He ran in that direction and hid behind some bushes and trees and watched as Dementors started closing in on the past version of himself and the others across the lake. His father should be here any second, if it really was him.

Over on the other side of the lake there were a few flickers of silver light. He recognized it as the attempts that the group made at a Patronus. "Come on! Where are you? Dad, come on..."

But his dad didn't come, no one did. His breath held in his throat, the dementors were closing in on them. Karma had fallen to his knees. One of the Dementors floated over to him and lowered its hood. The Wizard who cast the Patronus should be here now. It was then that he realized who he had seen. It wasn't some mysterious rescuer, it wasn't his dad, it was himself. He had cast the Patronus.

He leapt out from behind the bush and took out his want. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. The silvery light that burst from his want took the shape of a dazzling animal, it almost looked like a horse. It galloped across the lake and charged at the dementors. When the dementors were gone it started back to him. Harry met him at the edge of the water.

It was a stag, shining as brightly as the moon. Its hooves didn't make any marks on the ground. Harry stared into it's huge silvery eyes. It slowly bowed it's giant head to him. "Prongs," he whispered. But as he stretched his fingers out to touch it, it disappeared.

Just after, he heard the sound of hooves behind him. His heart was still beating hard, when he turned to see Hermione dragging Buckbeak along with her. "What did you do?" anger coloring her voice, "You said you were only going to keep a lookout!"

"I just saved all our lives...," Harry said, gesturing to the other side of the lake. In the distance they could see Karma and Nagisa rushing over to their bodies and making sure that everyone was OK.

Hermione looked as scared as ever, "Did anyone see you?"

Harry was getting frustrated, "Yes, haven't you been listening? I saw me but I thought I was my dad! It's OK!"

Hermione looked at him and then back across the lake, "Harry, I can't believe it... You conjured us a Patronus that drove away all those dementors! That's very, very advanced magic." She looked at him in disbelief.

"I knew I could do it this time," he said, "because I'd already done it... Does that make sense?"

Hermione looked at her watch and got more tense then before, "Right, it's nearly time. We've got about 45 minutes until we went back in time. We've got to rescue Sirius and get back into the ward before anybody realizes we're missing.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Sirius sat in this familiar room, a prisoner once again. He was very happy to be back in the castle, at least one last time before he died. He felt foolish for believing that he could get out of there and have a 'happy ending'. At least he could feel solace in the fact that the kids weren't going to get in trouble for helping him. And more importantly, Harry now knew the truth.

In this silent, dark room, he sat alone with only his thoughts. There was a tap on the glass. He looked up sharply and he felt like his jaw was going to hit the floor. Harry and Hermione were flying just outside the window. He jumped from his chair and tried to open the window but it was locked. "Stand back!" called Hermione. She held onto Harry's robe with one hand and held her wand with the other. "Alohomora!"

The window popped open, "How...how...?" he couldn't help but stare at the Hippogriff. It wasn't just the assassin children that were amazing, these two were formidable in their own way.

Harry held onto the Hippogriff's neck firmly to keep him steady. "You've got to get out of here, the dementors are coming. Macnair's gone to get them." Sirius' heart swelled as he started climbing out the window. "OK, Buckbeak, up! Up to the tower, come on." Harry said, shaking the rope.

The hippogriff's powerful wings beat and they went soaring up the tower. He hadn't felt this amazing in so long. When the hippogriff landed on top of the West Tower, Harry and Hermione got off. "Sirius," Harry panted, "They'll reach Flitwick's office any moment, they'll find out you're gone." The Hippogriff was getting bored and started moving its head around and pawing at the ground.

"What happened to the others?" Sirius asked.

"They're going to be OK." Harry whispered to him. "They stayed behind but Madam Pomfrey is tending to them. Quick, go" Sirius wanted to say or do something in return for all of the kindness that he had received in these dark times but he couldn't think of anything. "How can I ever thank-" "GO!" the children shouted together.

Sirius turned the hippogriff around and faced the open sky, "We'll see each other again," he said, "You are... truly your father's son, Harry..." He squeezed the hippogriff's sides and felt him soar into the sky once again.

Finally, he really was free.


	25. End of the Year or Owl Post Again

I did it! Last chapter!

 _Japanese_

English

Chapter 22 - End of the Year or Owl Post Again

Past-Nagisa was worried that they were going to wake up while he was pulling them toward the castle when Past-Karma tugged his arm. "We need to get back." He whispered harshly. Past-Nagisa looked down at Chiba and back to Past-Karma before nodding.

Together they headed back to the castle. He was worried that Hermione and Harry wouldn't be able to get back. He was already making up a story in case they didn't get back in time. Explaining things here was a little easier since everyone already knew about magic. Time travel, on the other hand, was going to be a little bit harder to explain away.

Together, they hugged the walls, avoiding people along the way. Since it was so late at night there weren't very many people out.

As they were turning a corner Karma held his arm out to stop him from going forward. Karma nodded in front of them.

They were about to run into Professor Snape and the Minister walking down the hall. They hid in the shadows and waited for them to pass. "It's a lucky thing that those foreign children were here. They've really helped with this situation. And it's probably thanks to them that Black was caught in the first place." The Minister said. He really seemed to be trying to justify their presence there.

"I suppose," said Snape uncertainly. Nagisa was certain that Snape didn't know what was going on. Megu should have brought him back to the castle. "Anyway, we can only hope Dumbledore's not going to make difficulties. The Kiss will be performed immediately?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Past-Nagisa noticed the shadows of Past-Hermione and Past-Harry hiding along the foot of the staircase. "As soon as Macnair returns with the dementors." Fudge continued, his voice a little strained. "This whole Black affair has been highly embarrassing. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to informing the Daily Prophet that we've got him at last..."

Past-Nagisa and Past-Karma nodded at each other as their footsteps faded away. Past-Harry and Past-Hermione walked right by them without noticing them. As they started running, Past-Nagisa and Past-Karma ran up beside them. "You guys made it!" Past-Hermione whispered excitedly. "None of us has made it yet." Past-Karma pointed out.

After several staircases and a couple of corridors they heard some familiar cackling. "Peeves!" Past-Harry muttered. He grabbed Past-Hermione's wrist and headed for an empty classroom, followed by Past-Nagisa and past-Karma. Peeves was laughing his head off through the corridor.

Past-Hermione had her ear to the door. "Oh, he's horrible. I bet he's all excited because the dementors are going to finish off Sirius..." "He's going to be disappointed." Past-Karma joked. "Three minutes!" she said.

The moment that Past-Karma thought that Peeves was gone he rushed out the door, followed by the others. Past-Hermione seemed a little surprised but followed him anyway.

"Hey," Past-Harry panted, "what'll happen if we can't make it back inside?" Past-Hermione shook her head, "I don't want to think about it! One minute!" Just as they rounded the last corner, it looked like Dumbledore was walking toward the door. "Everyone run now!" said Past-Karma.

They had just made it back in as they disappeared. Chiba and Hayami were walking back to their beds, " _I still don't really understand how this is possible. If they can go back in time that means that anything they are going to do is already done, so nothing will change, right?"_

Chiba shrugged his shoulders, _"I don't know how it works."_

"Miss us?" Karma (now present-Karma) said. They both turned back to them suddenly. "We did it!" Hermione exclaimed, a little out of breath.

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Terasaka had never been happier to see the castle. They should have gotten there an hour ago but they kept running into trouble. First that centaur, Selcor, stopped them before they got very far.

"You are an ally to Nagisa, am I correct?" Selcor greeted them. He had one of Weasely's arms around one of his shoulders and Muramatsu had the other. Terasaka shifted so that he was free to walk up to Selcor. "Yeah, you know where he is?"

Selcor looked away for a moment, "I do not. We were looking for Pettigrew but we were separated in the chaos." "Yeah, well," Terasaka responded, "those guys are probably fine. You got Pettigrew, right?"

"I could not find him." Selcor looked ashamed of himself. Terasaka growled but before he could say anything Muramatsu leaned forward and whispered, _"We need to get to the castle. If he doesn't know anything, let's just go."_

Terasaka nodded, "Do you have something you want from me? I've got some things to do." Selcor looked like he was going to ask something but he looked at Weasely and nodded, "I wish to speak to your group some time in the near future."

"Whatever," Terasaka muttered as they started on their way back to the castle. But that didn't last long.

They hadn't made it very far when they saw something that made them stop again. Masayoshi looked like he was petrified on the ground. He was completely alone except for the three giant spiders that were starting to wrap him in webs. Weasely made some weird scared noise.

Once again Terasaka took the lead and shot some spells at them. It was difficult, but he managed to lead the spiders away and chase them into the forest. When he returned to the others, Weasely was sitting against a tree while Muramatsu was trying to help Masayoshi.

"What's wrong with him?" Weasely squeaked. Terasaka ignored him and knelt down next to his friends. _" Can you do anything?"_ he asked. Muramatsu shook his head, _"I don't know what happened."_

"What's going on?!" Weasely seemed to be getting more and more frantic. "Be quiet!" Terasaka yelled at him.

 _"Help me get the webs off him. They're really_ strong." Muramatsu said, pulling at the webbing around Masayoshi.

They were working on it for about ten minutes when they heard howling. "W-was that a wolf?" Weasely said shakily. Muramatsu shook his head, "More like a werewolf."

Terasaka picked up Masayoshi and threw him over his shoulder. He was thankful that he was so light. "This way!" he yelled. They were lucky that he didn't chase them because they would have been caught pretty fast.

But all of that was over and they were now at the castle.

Terasaka walked right up to the front door. "We're going to get in trouble." Weasely whispered. Terasaka turned to him sharply, "Then go hide. Masayoshi needs attention right now. If we get caught, he goes to the hospital. Otherwise, we go to the hospital."

But they weren't caught. No one was in the hall as they walked up the stairs. They heard Snape and the Minister talking in the hall but they went the other way. When they got to the hospital wing they could hear Nurse Pomfrey telling off someone beyond the door.

Terasaka kicked open the door and walked in to see Nurse Pomfrey tending to an unconscious Nagisa. It seemed like the Minister was there, trying to smooth things over. When she noticed them, her jaw nearly hit the floor. "What in the world happened?!"

Terasaka put Masayoshi down on a bed, "Long story." Muramatsu did the same with Weasely and the two of them walked out the door. He was certain that the Headmaster would want to talk to them later but he didn't want to deal with that right now.

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Madam Pomfrey had sent Mr. Kimura to St. Mungo's as soon as he arrived. She was afraid that the spiders might have poisoned him. She knew that there was a nest that lived in the forest but she didn't know of any students getting bitten, save that girl 50 years ago.

Later that night the Minister had rudely ushered her away so that he could speak to Mr. Akabane in private. When she was finally able to take care of her patients she walked into the room to find that they were all gathered in the middle. "Back to bed, everyone!" she yelled at them. Some of them were out of breath, which was very worrying.

It seemed like the only one still sleeping was Weasely. Weirdly, he was the least injured.

She walked over to Mr. Shiota to help him into the bed. She thought that he still needed a lot more rest. She had considered taking him to St. Mungo's as well but he didn't seem to be too injured.

While she was checking on her patients she heard loud angry voices coming closer, "Really," she huffed, "they'll wake everybody up! What do they think they're doing?"

"He must have disapparated, Severus. We should have left somebody in the room with him. When this gets out-" came the Minister's voice.

"He didn't disapparate!" Professor Snape yelled, getting closer. "You can't apparate or disapparate inside this castle!"

Headmaster Dumbledore and the Minister walked into her hospital wing once again as Professor Snape stormed away. "The  
Daily Prophet's going to have a field day! We had Black cornered and he slipped through our fingers yet again! All it needs now is for the story of that hippogriff's escape to get out, and I'll be a laughingstock!" He looked at the students in turn. "I'd better go and notify the Ministry... If you have anything to tell me, I'll be available."

"And the Dementors?" Headmaster Dumbledore pressed, "They'll be removed from the school, I trust?"

"Oh yes," the Minister ran his fingers through his hair, looking a bit nervous, "they'll have to go. Never dreamed they'd attempt to administer the Kiss on innocent children... Completely out of control... no, I'll have them packed off back to Azkaban tonight... Perhaps we should think about dragons at the school entrance..."

Madam Pomfrey couldn't believe that this man was trying to be serious. Dragons! Terrible.

"Hagrid would like that," Headmaster Dumbledore agreed smiling at some of her patients. She wanted to think that he wasn't being serious but she couldn't be too sure.

As the two of them left, she hurried over and locked the door. "Everyone, please stay in bed." she pleaded with them before heading to her office.

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Karma leaned back in his bed and rested for the first time in hours. Finally, things were making more sense. He figured he could piece everything else together later. Fudge wanted him to give his final report but he was just going to have to wait.

Weasely woke up soon after they had returned. "You all made it back?!" he said happily. "Where's Masayoshi and Lupin?"

"Lupin is safe." Hayami said, "Far enough away from the castle that he isn't going to harm anyone. We haven't heard anything about Masayoshi." While his friends were explaining what had happened, Karma listened carefully, gathering information while eating more chocolate.

He planned to wait until everyone else was asleep to send his final report to Fudge. He'd tell the others about that later.

xxxxxxx

Early the next morning, Nagisa left the hospital wing before anyone else was up. It was nice to rest in a real bed but he wanted to get up.

He was walking silently through the halls when he came across Professor Lupin, looking tired and ragged. It made sense, given what happened. "Good morning, Professor." Nagisa greeted him.

"I am sorry," Professor Lupin hung his head, "to put you all in danger." Nagisa put his arms behind his back, "Well, we wouldn't have come here if we were worried about danger."

Nagisa started walking beside him toward his office. "Are you going to teach again next year?" Nagisa asked. Professor Lupin smiled sadly as he opened the door to his office.

"No," he answered, looking through his books, "I won't be back. Severus... accidently told everyone that I was a werewolf over breakfast. I've just finished putting in my resignation."

Professor Lupin took out the map and it looked like he was going to give it to him so Nagisa said, "Potter would get more use out of that. We have finished what we came to do, I'm not coming back either."

Nagisa crossed his arms and looked down, "I'm sorry that happened. You are a very good teacher. If I gave you my number, could we still talk, every now and then?"

"Of course Nagisa." Professor Lupin nodded at him. "It was interesting teaching you. I think I want to learn a little more about you."

xxxxxxx

Hermione left the hospital wing around noon with Harry, Ron, Chiba and Hayami. Nagisa and Akabane had snuck out earlier when everyone else was sleeping. Madam Pomfrey was livid.

Chiba and Hayami weren't very interested in talking to them and went their own way. The warm day meant that nearly everyone in the castle wanted to enjoy a Hogsmeade visit. However, she and the boys decided to walk through the grounds talking excitedly about what had happened the night before. Some of the things that had happened were just too amazing to believe.

When Hagrid told them that Professor Lupin had resigned this morning, Harry rushed to speak to him.

xxxxxx

Albus had waited for Remus to finished packing before disturbing him again. He was curious about how much he knew but perhaps he could interrogate him later. He knocked lightly on the door.

He wasn't surprised to see Harry talking to him. He suspected that he gave the Invisibility Cloak back. "Your carriage is at the gates, Remus." Remus nodded, "Thank you, Headmaster."

He took his old suitcase and his now empty grindylow tank and walked to the door. "Well, goodbye Harry," he smiled at him. "It has been a real pleasure teaching you. I feel sure we'll meet again, sometime. Headmaster, there is no need to see me to the gates, I can manage..."

Remus seemed to want to leave as quickly as possible, which was understandable. "Goodbye then, Remus," Albus said as they shook hands.

It was only him and Harry left in the office. Harry plopped down in a chair. "Why so miserable, Harry?" he asked gently. "You should be very proud of yourself after last night."

Harry knit his brows at him. He knew that it would seem mysterious that he knew 'everything'. "How do you know what happened?" Remus had told him everything that he knew and the elves told him what they saw, so he knew most of the story.

Although, he didn't want to say anything about the foreign children, other than they were stronger than they looked.

"I like to keep an eye on the castle. What you did was too big to miss." Albus stated. He was glad that Harry seemed to accept that.

"It didn't make any difference," Harry said solemnly, "Pettigrew got away."

"Didn't make any difference?" Albus asked, "It made all the difference in the world, Harry. You helped uncover the truth. You saved an innocent man from a terrible fate."

Harry seemed to think about that for a minute before remembering something. "Professor Dumbledore," Harry stated, "yesterday, when I was having my Divination exam, Professor Trelawney went very... very strange."

"Indeed?" Albus responded, "Er, stranger than usual, you mean?"

"Yes... her voice went all deep and her eyes rolled and she said ... she said Voldemort's servant was going to set out to return to him before midnight... She said the servant would help him come back to power." Harry stared up at Albus. "And then she sort of became normal again, and she couldn't remember anything she'd said. Was it... was she making a real prediction?"

Albus was sort of impressed. He didn't think that she would be able to make another prediction. "Do you know, Harry, I think she might have been." he said, still thinking about her, "Who'd have thought it? That brings her total of real predictions up to two. I should offer her a pay raise..."

"But," Harry was looking at him curiously, "but I stopped Sirius and Professor Lupin from killing Pettigrew! That makes it my fault if Voldemort comes back!"

"It does not," Albus tried to reassure him. He didn't need Harry to start feeling guilty about this, it would just make things more complicated, "Hasn't your experience with the Time-Turner taught you anything, Harry? The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed..." There were no words to truly describe the difficultly that his future would hold. "Professor Trelawney, bless her, is living proof of that... You did a very noble thing, in saving Pettigrew's life."

Harry still looked doubtful. "But if he helps Voldemort back to power-" "Pettigrew owes his life to you." Albus interrupted. "You have sent Voldemort a deputy who is in your debt... When one wizard saves another wizard's life, it creates a certain bond between them... and I'm much mistaken if Voldemort wants his servant in the debt of Harry potter."

Harry looked more upset than relieved by this, "I don't want a connection with Pettigrew!" he said firmly, "He betrayed my parents!"

"This is magic at its deepest, its most impenetrable, Harry." Albus continued gently, "But trust me... the time may come when you will be very glad you saved Pettigrew's life."

He could guess what Harry was thinking. "I knew you father very well, both at Hogwarts and later, Harry." He would have to think about telling them stories about his parents later in life, now was not the time. "He would have saved Pettigrew too, I am sure of it."

Harry looked at him with such trust in his eyes, "I thought it was my dad who'd conjured my Patronus. I mean, when I was myself across the lake... I thought I was seeing him." Albus nodded, "An easy mistake to make. I expect you'll tire of hearing it, but you do look extraordinarily like James. Except for the eyes... you have your mother's eyes."

Harry shook his head, "It was stupid, thinking it was him. I mean, I knew he was dead."

"You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don't recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself most plainly when you have need of him. How else could you produce that particular Patronus? Prongs rode again last night."

He left Harry alone with his thoughts. Just outside the door Nagisa was looking completely undecided. "Hello, Professor." He said. Albus smiled at him gently, "Hello, Nagisa. Are you feeling better?"

Nagisa nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine." They started walking together, "Is Professor Lupin gone now?"

Albus nodded solemnly, "Yes, he had resigned this morning." Nagisa looked down sadly. "Nagisa?" he said, gaining his attention again, "would you please tell me what you thought about Sirius Black?"

Nagisa paused for a moment and looked out a nearby window, "He was... different. He wasn't the monster that everyone says but that didn't mean that he was very nice." Albus looked at him for a moment. "I don't mean that he was mean to me," Nagisa defended, "It's just, he's not what people would expect out of him."

Albus smiled for a moment, Sirius never was a 'nice boy'. He wasn't evil, but a bit of a troublemaker. "I see," he responded.

They fell into a silence for a moment before Albus said, "I don't expect you would like to come back next year?" Nagisa shook his head, "No, I plan to remain in my country next year."

He to wanted learn more about these children but he didn't think that Nagisa was the right person to go through. "Well," Albus said gently, "if you need anything, I'd be happy to assist you if I am able." "Thank you," Nagisa replied.

xxxxxxxx

Hayami had found that since leaving the hospital wing, people around her believed that she had become a werewolf. The few students that would normally talk to her stopped and the others treated her like she had the plague. Even some of the teachers were acting a little nervous around her. Chiba was being treated just as badly as her just for being around her so much. The only people that didn't seem to treat her any differently were other members of Team E.

Despite it being near perfect weather for shooting, Hayami and Chiba decided not to go into the forest. They had enough of that place for a while. While walking through the courtyard they heard tons of rumors about what had happened, all of them completely wrong.

Near the end of term, while they were sitting under a large tree enjoying the warm weather, they noticed Nakamura and Karma walking up to them. " _How's it going?"_ Karma asked. " _Are you alright, Hayami?"_ Nakamura asked.

Hayami looked up at her, " _I'm fine."_

 _"By the way,"_ Chiba looked up at Karma, who was standing there leaning back with his arms behind his head, " _did Itona finish what he was working on?"_ Karma shrugged his shoulders, " _I don't know. He said-"_

"Hey!" Seamus Finnigan shouted. He and Dean Thomas were approaching them. Apparently neither of them saw Chiba or Hayami, hidden behind the tree. Karma waved cheerfully at them.

Their friendly smiles faded when they saw Chiba and Hayami. "Ah, hey" Seamus said nervously.

"So," Nakamura drew out, "Do you think that Lupin Sensei will be teaching next year?"

Dean shook his head, "I don't think so, because," he glanced at Hayami, "well, you know."

Karma rolled his eyes, "Of course, everyone knows that werewolves can't teach."

Dean and Seamus looked a little guilty, "S-sorry." They left awkwardly.

xxxxxxxx

The Great Hall was decorated in scarlet and gold because Gryffindor had once again won the House Championship. Despite some of the more terrible things that had happened that year, all of Team E were celebrating together. Originally they were with their own houses but as they started eating, they would go from one table to the other. Most of them hadn't even talked about the pay they would get for the job until now.

When it was time to board the train, most of them were still not done celebrating. Karma hooked his arm around Nagisa's neck as they walked onto the train. " _You did pretty awesome, pretty gutsy."_ Karma complemented him. Nagisa smiled, pulling away slightly, " _You were really cool too."_

After wandering around a while and being told to take their seats by a prefect, they opened the first compartment that they found. Hermione, Harry and Ron were the only ones occupying it. "Can we sit?" Karma asked, already taking his seat. "Sure," said Ron, prompting Nagisa to take a seat as well.

Harry was staring longingly out the window as the castle was obscured by the mountains. "I'm sure summer will feel like it's just blown by before you know it." Nagisa said, trying to cheer him up. Crookshanks was eyeing him carefully from Hermione's lap but Karma reached out and gave his head a little ruffle, which he didn't seem to mind.

Harry gave a weak smile, "Yeah, I'm sure." "Yeah Harry," Ron interjected, "You've got to come and stay with us. I'll fix it up with Mum and Dad, then I'll call you. I know how to use a fellytone now-"

"A telephone," Hermione corrected, "Honestly, you should take Muggle Studies next year..."

However, Ron ignored her and went on, "It's the Quidditch World Cup this summer! How about it, Harry? Come and stay, and we'll go and see it! Dad can usually get tickets from work."

"Maybe I'll see you there," Karma smiled at them. "Yeah... I bet the Dursleys'd be pleased to let me come... Especially after what I did to Aunt Marge..." Harry responded.

Ron had suggested the that they play some Exploding Snaps and he seemed to cheer up considerably. They took turns playing against each other and ended up playing until the tea cart arrived. They all got lunch, but no one wanted any chocolate.

They had been enjoying each other's company for a couple of hours when Hermione pointed at the window, "Harry, what's that thing outside your window?" They all turned to see a tiny grey owl, trying it's hardest to keep up. It was carrying a letter that was too big for him.

Harry quickly pulled down the window to reach out and catch it. After it dropped the letter it started flitting around the compartment. Ron noticed Croockshanks eyeing the tiny bird so he snatched the bird out of harms way.

As he was doing this Harry picked up the discarded letter. "It's from Sirius!" he shouted. "Read it aloud," Ron demanded

'Dear Harry,  
I hope this finds you before you reach your aunt and uncle. I don't know whether they're used to owl post. Buckbeak and I are in hiding. I won't tell you where, in case this owl falls into the wrong hands. I have some doubt about his reliability, but he is the best I could find, and he did seem eager for the job.  
I believe the dementors are still searching for me, but they haven't a hope of finding me here. I am planning to allow some Muggles to glimpse me soon, a long way from Hogwarts, so that the security on the castle will be lifted.  
There is something I never got around to telling you during our brief meeting. It was I who sent you the Firebolt-"

"Ha!" Hermione shouted, "See! I told you it was from him!" "How did he get it in the first place?" Karma mumbled. "Yes," Ron countered, apparently not hearing Karma, "but he hadn't jinxed it, had he? Ouch!" the tiny owl started nibbling on his finger playfully.

Harry continued, 'Crookshands took the order to the Owl Office for me. I used your name but told them to take the gold from my own Gingotts vault. Please consider it as thirteen birthdays' worth of presents from your Godfather.  
I would also like to apologize for the fright I think I gave you that night last year when you left your uncle's house. I had only hoped to get a glimpse of you before starting my journey north, but I think the sight of me alarmed you.  
If you come into contact with Nagisa before you get to your Aunt and Uncle's house, please thank him for all he has done for me.  
I am enclosing something else for you, which I think will make your next year at Hogwarts more enjoyable.  
If ever you need me, send word. Your owl will find me.  
~Sirius'

Harry looked eagerly in the envelope to see what else was in there. As He pulled out the last piece of parchment he smiled ear to ear. 'I, Sirius Black,' Harry read out loud, 'Harry Potter's godfather, hereby give him permission to visit Hogsmeade on weekends.' He looked at the others in the room, "That'll be good enough for Dumbledore!

He looked back down at the paper, "Hang on, there's a PS... 'I thought your friend Ron might like to keep this owl, as it's my fault he no longer has a rat.'

Ron's eyes widened, "Keep him? To everyone's surprise he held him out to Crookshanks, "What do you reckon? Definitely an owl?" After the cat purred at it he smiled happily, "That's good enough for me. He's mine."

On the way to King's Cross station, Harry reread the letter over and over again. Meanwhile, Karma and Nagisa were discussing what they would do when they got home. When the five of them got off the train the Weasely parents were waiting there for their children. Ron said goodbye to his friends. As he did, Karma and Nagisa made sure to give them their numbers.

" _Bye,"_ Nagisa said as he saw his mother. He was a little surprised when Karma drew him in for a quick hug, " _See ya later."_ Most of Team E was going home on their own but his mother had decided to show up. She didn't really want him to go in the first place and he was sure she had heard that news that he was 'kidnapped'. He had also forgotten to write her in all the confusion.

As Nagisa walked to the taxi with his mother, half listening to her little rant, he thought about what the future might hold. He hoped that he would see some of his new friends again. When he arrived at the airport, an owl landed right in front of him.

Nakamura had arrived just behind him and was peering over his shoulder, " _Black wrote already?"_ Nagisa opened it up to see what he had to say.


End file.
